Big Apple

see also: Etymology of Big Apple

The " Big Apple" French (: the Large Apple ) is one of the nicknames for the town of New York used by the New Yorkeans. The popularity of this nickname goes back to an advertizing campaign of the New York Convention and Visitor' S Bureau (equivalent of the Tourist office for New York) of the Années 1970. But the origin of this nickname does not achieve the unanimity.

A theory advanced by the New York Historical Society (historical company of New York) and others would be that this denomination was popularized by the chronicler John FitzGerald.

John FitzGerald is recognized as being the first to use this expression in a horse article in 1921 in the newspaper of the New York Morning Telegraph , then he explained of it the origin in a article published on February 18th, 1924. The expression came from the stable boys Afro-Americans working to the racecourses of the Orleans News: “The Large Apple. The dream of any stable-lad who already spanned a thorough-bred and the goal of all the jockeys. There is only one Large Apple. It is New York”

Two black stable boys bringing two thorough-breds towards the “surface of cooling” contiguous to the stables of the Fair Grounds to the Orleans News, engaged the conversation:

Where you go then, required one
Ensuite one goes to Large Apple, answered proudly the other
Eh well, would be better to fatten them or all that you will obtain from apple that will be the core, retorted it.

In the years 1920, the hippodromes of New York were the last word; to go to the races of New York was thus a real pleasure, the reward, in an allegorical way a Large Apple.

In 1997, within the framework of the official designation of the old place of residence of FitzGerald, located at the angle of the 54e street West and Broadway, in “Big Apple Corner”, the mayor Rudy Giuliani summarized the remainder of the history:

According to PBS, it is Walter Winchell which employed the term of “Large Apple” to evoke the cultural scene of New York, particularly Harlem and Broadway, thus contributing to spread the use of the nickname.

One finds a first use of the expression in a book of Edward S. Martin going back to 1909 heading The Wayfarer in New York . He writes (in connection with New York) that the remainder of the United States “inclines to think that the large apple obtains a disproportionate share of the national sap”. The etymologists were not able to determine if this use had an influence on the popularity of the nickname.

The musician Harry Gibson pays in his autobiography that this expression concerned in a specific way, in the years 1940, Swing Street , the nickname which one then gave to the 52e street West. If that is true, Giulani would have been mistaken in two blocks of houses at the time of the inaugural ceremony.

An apocryphal book explanation says that the term comes from the slang jazz: since in years 1920 and 1930 much of musicians lived often from day to day, occasional engagements were sometimes called “apples”. To play New York was regarded as a “Great moment”, from where the term of “Large Apple”.

The town of Manhattan, in Kansas, is made call the “small apple” in its advertizing booklets, and Mineapolis in Minnesota it “mini apple”. As for Toronto, it is often called, mainly because of its size, “Large Apple of Canada”.

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