“Where facts are few, experts are many”

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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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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Entry from April 21, 2013

“Where facts are few, experts are many”

“Where facts are few, experts are many” means that, when a problem is not well defined with facts, seemingly everyone is an expert. “When facts are few, experts are many” has been cited in print since at least May 1996. In 1997, the saying was credited to Donald R. Gannon.

It’s not certain who this person is, or when he first said it. There is a Dr. Donald R. Gannon, a psychologist at the South Dakota State Human Services Center.

Google Groups: bit.listserv.quality
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.quality
From: QUALITY List Editor

Date: 1996/05/09
Subject: Productivity Improvement Center PIC
(...)
...when facts are few, experts are many….

Google Books
How to Create Profitable New Products:
From Mission to Market
By George Gruenwald
Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books
1997
Pg. 7:
“Where facts are few, experts are many.” — DONALD R. GANNON

Google Groups: alt.test
Newsgroups: alt.test, alt.discuss.arts.audio-video
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: 1998/02/05
Subject: Yahoo - Satellite DIRECT Exclusive: DIRECTV(R) and Microsoft Part Ways
(...)
——“Where facts are few, experts are many.” - Donald R Gannon——

Google News Archive
7 November 2006, Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), pg. 13, col. 5:
Someone once said, “Where facts are few, experts are many.”
(Letter by Jerry Harrington, Wallingford—ed.)

Google Books
The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said
Edited by Robert Byrne
New York, NY: Touchstone (Simon & Schuster)
2012
2,429
Where facts are few, experts are many. —Donald R. Gannon

Posted by Barry Popik
New York City • Work/Businesses • Sunday, April 21, 2013 • Permalink

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