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    Why Is New York City Called The Big Apple

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    Nicolle Donayre
    New York City is commonly known as "The Big Apple", a nickname that originated from horse racing in the 1920s. A sports writer named John J. Fitz Gerald began using the phrase "Around the Big Apple" in his horse racing column to refer to New York City's racetracks. He had heard the term used by stable hands in New Orleans referring to the large prize money available in New York races. The nickname spread beyond horse racing and was popularized by New York jazz musicians in the 1930s, eventually being officially adopted by the city in the 1970s to promote tourism.

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    Why Is New York City Called The Big Apple

    Uploaded by

    Nicolle Donayre
    34 views3 pages
    New York City is commonly known as "The Big Apple", a nickname that originated from horse racing in the 1920s. A sports writer named John J. Fitz Gerald began using the phrase "Around the Big Apple" in his horse racing column to refer to New York City's racetracks. He had heard the term used by stable hands in New Orleans referring to the large prize money available in New York races. The nickname spread beyond horse racing and was popularized by New York jazz musicians in the 1930s, eventually being officially adopted by the city in the 1970s to promote tourism.

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    Why is New York City Called The Big Apple (1)

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    New York City is commonly known as "The Big Apple", a nickname that originated from horse racing in the 1920s. A sports writer named John J. Fitz Gerald began using the phrase "Around the Big Apple" in his horse racing column to refer to New York City's racetracks. He had heard the term used by stable hands in New Orleans referring to the large prize money available in New York races. The nickname spread beyond horse racing and was popularized by New York jazz musicians in the 1930s, eventually being officially adopted by the city in the 1970s to promote tourism.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    34 views3 pages

    Why Is New York City Called The Big Apple

    Uploaded by

    Nicolle Donayre
    New York City is commonly known as "The Big Apple", a nickname that originated from horse racing in the 1920s. A sports writer named John J. Fitz Gerald began using the phrase "Around the Big Apple" in his horse racing column to refer to New York City's racetracks. He had heard the term used by stable hands in New Orleans referring to the large prize money available in New York races. The nickname spread beyond horse racing and was popularized by New York jazz musicians in the 1930s, eventually being officially adopted by the city in the 1970s to promote tourism.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Why is New York City Called

    The Big Apple?


    BY SEAN HUTCHINSON
     
    MAY 8, 2018

    New York City has been called many things—“The Great


    American Melting Pot,” “Gotham,” “The City that Never
    Sleeps”—but its most famous nickname is “The Big Apple.”
    So just where did this now-ubiquitous moniker originate?

    MAKING A BIG APPLE

    Over the years, there have been many theories about how New
    York City came to be called “The Big Apple.” Some say it
    comes from the former well-to-do families who sold apples on
    the city's streets to make ends meet during the Great
    Depression. Another account posits that the term comes from
    a famous 19th-century brothel madam named Eve, whose girls
    were cheekily referred to as her “Big Apples.” But the
    nickname actually springs from a catchphrase used in the
    1920s by The Morning Telegraph sports writer John J. Fitz
    Gerald in his horse racing column, “Around the Big Apple.”
    Beginning on February 18, 1924, he began every column with
    the header, “The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever
    threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen.
    There's only one Big Apple. That's New York.”
    At the time, the jockeys and trainers of smaller horses were
    said to want to make a “Big Apple," which was their term for
    the big money prizes at larger races in and around New York
    City.

    Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard  "The Big Apple" used to


    describe New York's racetracks by two African American
    stable hands at the famed New Orleans Fair Grounds, as he
    explained in his inaugural "Around the Big Apple" column:
    “Two dusky stable hands were leading a pair of thoroughbreds
    around the ‘cooling rings’ of adjoining stables at the Fair
    Grounds in New Orleans and engaging in desultory
    conversation. ‘Where y'all goin' from here?’ queried one.
    ‘From here we're headin' for The Big Apple,’ proudly replied
    the other. ‘Well, you'd better fatten up them skinners or all
    you'll get from the apple will be the core,’ was the quick
    rejoinder.” Fitz Gerald nabbed the colloquialism for his
    column, where it quickly took off.

    CATCHING ON

    Once the term entered the vocabularies of society up north, its


    popularity slowly spread outside of the horseracing context,
    and everything from nightclubs in Harlem to hit songs and
    dances about the city were named after “The Big Apple.”
    Most notably, New York jazz musicians in the 1930s—who
    had a habit of using the nickname to reference their hometown
    in their songs—helped the nickname spread beyond the
    northeast.
    Throughout the mid-20th century, it remained New York
    City's nickname until it was officially adopted by the city in
    the 1970s. The New York Convention & Visitors Bureau
    hoped that using the moniker would brighten the image of an
    economically downtrodden and crime-ridden city in decline
    and revive the tourist economy. In 1997, to give Fitz Gerald
    his (somewhat unjust) due, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed
    legislation  naming the corner where Fitz Gerald and his
    family lived at West 54th Street and Broadway between 1934
    and 1963 “Big Apple Corner.”

    Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31841/why-new-york-city-called-big-apple

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