A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from May 05, 2018
Ulcer County (Madison Avenue advertising agencies)

Syndicated newspaper columnist Walter Winchell (1897-1972) wrote in a column in March 1949:
 
“Sights You Never See on the New York Map: (...) ‘Ulcer County,’ the sector along Madison Avenue, where nearly all the important advertising agencies office.”
     
Working on a Madison Avenue advertising agency was (and still is) stressful and was believed to have caused ulcers. The name “Ulcer County” does not have any other known citations and is of historical interest today.
 
“Ulcer Gulch” is a similar name for Madison Avenue.
   
   
Wikipedia: Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic.
(...)
Since the 1920s, the street’s name has been metonymous with the American advertising industry. Therefore, the term “Madison Avenue” refers specifically to the agencies, and methodology of advertising.
 
23 March 1949, Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, “On Broadway” by Walter Winchell, pg. 25, col. 2:
Sights You Never See on the New York Map: (...) “Ulcer County,” the sector along Madison Avenue, where nearly all the important advertising agencies office.
 
June 1949, Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan (New York, NY), “Winchell’s New York,” pg. 112, col. 2:
Sights You Never See on the New York Map: (...) “Ulcer County,” the sector along Madison Avenue, where nearly all the important advertising agencies office.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityStreets • Saturday, May 05, 2018 • Permalink


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