“Please give me a dime (or another amount) for a sandwich” is what a beggar might request. The line usually means that the beggar is hungry and needs the money to buy himself a sandwich to eat. A joke ending has a person taking this as a transaction request and responding, “Let me see the sandwich first.”
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1929 and was popular during the 1930s economic depression.
Google Books
Hardware Age
Volume 123, Issues 1-9
1929
Pg. 58:
Beggar, to Sandy McTavish: “Wud ye please give me a dime for a sandwich?”
Sandy: “Show me the sandwich.”
5 October 1934, Thomasville (GA) Times-Enterprise, pg. 7, col. 2:
JOKES
Beggar:—Will you please give me a dime for a sandwich?
B. V. Sober:—Let me see the sandwich.
Google Books
Norfolk and Western Magazine
Volume 15
1937
Pg. 102:
W. H. “Hub” Beckner said that Taylor Austin went up town a few days ago for lunch, and just as he walked in the restaurant door, a fellow walked up to him and said, “Buddy, how about a dime for a sandwich,” and Taylor said, “Let me see the sandwich first.”
17 January 1940, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, “Hardly a…Column” by The Stroller (R. W. Jackson), pg. 7, col. 4:
AN EMPLOYEE at Woodrums’ store tells this one on Mrs. Dorothy Koester, switchboard operator at the store.
Tuesday morning as Mrs. Koester headed for work she was stopped on the street by a man who asked:
“Lady, will you give me 10 cents or a sandwich?”
Although Mrs. Koester knew what the man meant, she pretended as though she thought the man was trying to sell her something to eat. She told the beggar:
“Let me see the sandwich fist.”
6 November 1954, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, pg. 15:
Hobo: “Sir, will you give me a dime for a sandwich?”
Gent: “Let me see the sandwich.”
10 April 1957, The Prospector (El Paso, TX), “On Campus” with Max Shulman, pg. 2, col. 3:
DR. MAGRUDER: Howdy, folks. A funny thing happened to me on the way to my doctorate. A mendicant approached me and said, “Excuse me, sir, will you give me 25 cents for a sandwich?” I replied, “Perhaps I will, my good man. Let me see the sandwich.”
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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