"Big Apple" revisited: Alain Locke's supposed 1919 Harlem/big apple quote (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

A year earlier in that same sense of "Broadway variety theaters" - and from
the same columnist (or at least column):

1926 _Poughkeepsie Eagle_ (Nov. 16) 6:  The Daybook of a New Yorker....[H]e
got some billings in Oklahoma and now he is "Getting his bite of the Big
Apple," as the [?vaudevil]ians say when they are p[?laying] Broadway.

JL


On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 12:36 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "Big Apple" revisited:  Alain Locke's supposed 1919
>              Harlem/big              apple quote (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Can't help with Gerry's specific request, but here is an early "Big
> Apple" cite that I don't find on Barry Popik's website.
>
>
> _Poughkeepsie Eagle News_ Jan 8 1927 p. 6
> "The Daybook of a New Yorker"
> "New York, Jan. 7 -- Mayor Jimmy Walker is a slim little fellow, quick
> and nervous in his movements like a vaudeville hoofer on the first night
> of his first bite out of the Big Apple."
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf Of Cohen, Gerald Leonard
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 7:54 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: "Big Apple" revisited: Alain Locke's supposed 1919 Harlem/big
> > apple quote
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > --------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> > Subject:      "Big Apple" revisited:  Alain Locke's supposed 1919
> > Harlem/big
> >               apple quote
> >
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> > This is a follow-up and a request for assistance.
> >
> >     Barry Popik and I have been checking the statement as reported in
> > the 1/17/2007 Wall Street Journal that A. Locke said in 1919: "Harlem
> > is the precious fruit of the Garden of Eden, the big apple." The
> > statement reportedly appears on a map of the Harlem Renaissance in the
> > possession of Marc H. Miller (Founder and Director of Ephemera Press),
> > but no source was cited.
> >
> >     I don't find the quote entered in Google books, and in some twenty
> > years of research on the origin of "The Big Apple" neither Barry nor I
> > have come across mention of it other than in the 2007 WSJ article.
> > Marc Miller recently responded to a query of mine about this, but the
> > source still remains unknown (a book of quotations in the B'klyn
> Public
> > Library--title not given--and the book of quotations did not cite the
> > source of A. Locke's supposed 1919 "big apple" quote).
> >
> >      Barry's website (barrypopik.com)  comments: "I have spent many
> > hours reading the Amsterdam News and New York Age, and looking at all
> > of Locke's and [Fletcher] Henderson's works. "Big Apple" is not there
> > before the 1930s."
> >
> >     The interpretation seems clear.  Unless a source can be located
> for
> > A. Locke's 1919 quotation, it should be regarded as non-existent.
> But,
> > if by chance, someone can locate the quote, I'd very much appreciate
> > hearing of it. Full credit would be given in the "Big Apple" book that
> > Barry and I are presently preparing (2nd, revised, edition of my 1991
> > monograph on the origin of the sobriquet).
> >
> >     Btw, below my signoff is the response I've just received (June 1)
> > from Marc Miller on the A. Locke quotation.
> >
> > Gerald Cohen
> >
> > [reply on A. Locke's supposed 1919 "Harlem is...the big apple"
> > quotation]:
> >
> > Dear Gerald Cohen,
> >
> > My knowledge about this quotation has not changed since I last
> answered
> > your
> > query.  I found it in a book compiling well-known quotations in the
> > main
> > branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.    I was seeking an appropriate
> > quotation about Harlem.  Unfortunately I do not have a record of the
> > title
> > of the book.  If the book had listed a source for the quotation along
> > with
> > the date, I would have written it down.   Knowing a bit about Locke, I
> > can
> > say it is not uncommon for him to use the word "fruit" or to make
> > biblical
> > allusions   I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the quote.
> > It is
> > possible that the book of quotations was mistaken about the date.
> > Locke
> > lived until 1954.  Good luck with your book.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Marc H. Miller. Ph.D.
> >
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> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
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