“Vacations are easy to plan — your boss tells you when, and your wife tells you where” is an old office joke. “VACATION: A period which your boss tells you when to take and your wife tells you where to go” was cited in print in March 1948. In 1950, that same line was included in the syndicated newspaper feature “Daffynitions” by Paul H. Gilbert.
10 March 1948, Oakland (CA) Tribune, pg. 13, col. 6:
VACATION: A period which your boss tells you when to take and your wife tells you where to go.
3 December 1950, Seattle (WA) Sunday Times, “Daffynitions” by Paul H. Gilbert, Magazine, pg. 13, col. 1:
VACATION: A period which your boss tells you when to take and your wife tells you where to go.
12 February 1951, The Bee (Danville, VA), pg. 10, col. 1 classified ad:
KING COLE SEZ:
Vacations aren’t so hard to plan. After all, the boss tells you when, and the wife tells you where.
COLE FURNITURE CO.
Google Books
Speaker’s Encyclopedia of Humor:
Stories, Quotes, Definitions, and Toasts for Every Situation
By Jacob Morton Braude
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1961
Pg. 322:
Vacations are easy to plan: The boss tells you when and the wife tells you where.
Google Books
Encyclopedia of Humor
By Joey Adams
New York, NY: Bonanza Books
1968
Pg. 225:
Vacations are easy to plan — your boss tells you when, and your wife tells you where.
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers
By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 549:
Vacations are easy to plan — the boss tells you when, and the wife tells you where.
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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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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