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 01, 2021
Windy City (Port Elizabeth, South Africa nickname)

Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has been called the “Windy City.” It is a major seaport city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
 
“PORT ELIZABETH, Sunday.—The most disappointed man in this windy city to-day” was printed in the Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa) on June 8, 1959.  “... in Port Elizabeth last Friday night and Wits chairman Ronnie Schloss returned to the Rand to report that enthusiasm for the game in the ‘windy city’” was printed in the Rand Daily Mail on September 10, 1974. “The ‘Windy City’ failed to live up to its reputation” was printed in the Rand Daily Mail on March 26, 1975.
 
Other cities with a “Windy City” nickname include Chicago, Illinois and Wellington, New Zealand.
     
 
Wikipedia: Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth, officially named Gqeberha ([ᶢǃʱɛ̀ɓéːxà]) and colloquially often referred to as PE, is a major seaport city and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa’s second-largest metropolitan district by area. It is the sixth-most-populous city in South Africa and is the cultural, economic and financial centre of the Eastern Cape.

The second-oldest city in South Africa, it was founded as “Port Elizabeth” in 1820 by the government of the Cape Colony when 4,000 British colonists settled Algoa Bay to strengthen the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa. It is nicknamed “The Friendly City” or “The Windy City”.
     
8 June 1959, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), pg. 16, col. 3:
E. PROVINCE HAD ALL THE CHANCES
PORT ELIZABETH, Sunday.—The most disappointed man in this windy city to-day is Jaap Wessels, the Alberton and Transvaal hooker and captain.
   
10 September 1974, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), “Grainger’s ‘century’” by Hymie Snoyman, pg. 31, col. 3:
... in Port Elizabeth last Friday night and Wits chairman Ronnie Schloss returned to the Rand to report that enthusiasm for the game in the “windy city” is building up again.
 
26 March 1975, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), pg. 32, cols. 3-4:
Tape judges
in uproar

By NORMAN CREWS
PORT ELIZABETH—
(...)
The “Windy City” failed to live up to its reputation.
 
30 March 1976, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), “It was nearly a midnight finish” by Hymie Snoyman, pg. 38, col. 6:
In the National Third Division, Hume Park, of Port Elizabeth, look like putting the “windy city” back on the NFL map.
 
13 September 1976, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), “Southerns smile” by Adrian Fredericks, pg. 26, col. 2:
PORT ELIZABETH.—The slumbering windy city flexed its muscles yesterday and served a warning to the upcountry team that wind will play a major role in the destination of this week’s Rothmans inter-provincial golf title at the Port Elizabeth golf club.
 
2 February 1977, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), “Port Elizabeth: I’m going to watch PE turn pink” by Viv Prince, pg. 16, col. 7:
But now the windy city—a title it disputes with East London—wants us to stay a while and take a long look.
 
4 February 1977, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg, South Africa), “Down Your Way” by Viv Prince, pg. 9, col. 8:
“They call us the Windy City, yet we are not as windy as Cape Town or East London and we gave figures to prove it,” said the very determined councillor, Mrs. Katie Gelvan.
 
Google Books
The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z
By Tom Dalwell and Terry Victor
New York, NY: Routledge
2006
Pg. 2110:
Windy City nickname
1. Chicago, Illinois US 1976
(...)
2. Port Elizabeth SOUTH AFRICA 1989
(...)
3. Wellington, New Zealand NEW ZEALAND
(A 2004 citation is given.—ed.)
 
OCLC WorldCat record
WM 2010: Stadiondach fiir die “windy city” Port Elizabeth
Author: Goppert K.; Haspel L.
Edition/Format: Article Article : German
Publication: Stahlbau, v78 n6 (2009 08 10): 410-418
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The Cape’s windy city: Spotlight on South Africa’s Port Elizabeth
Author: P Biesheuval; B Ingpen
Publisher: [Burton-on-Trent, etc., Waterway Productions Ltd., etc.]
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Ships monthly. 44, no. 4, (2009): 46-49
 
Twitter
Akhona Ngcozela
@ngcozzi
Port Elizabeth isn’t called “The Windy City” for nothing.
11:08 AM · Sep 27, 2013·Twitter for BlackBerry®
 
Twitter
Alex B
@alexblumberg
Port Elizabeth
Nelson Mandela Bay
Algoa Bay
Gqeberha
The Friendly City
The Windy City
The Armpit of Africa
Call it whatever tf you want, it is still rife with crime and corruption and no amount of name changes is going to change that unforch.
1:41 AM · Feb 24, 2021·Twitter Web App

Posted by Barry Popik
Nicknames of Other PlacesWindy City, Second City, Chi-Town (Chicago nicknames) • Saturday, May 01, 2021 • Permalink


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