[Ads-l] "The Big Easy"

[Ben Yagoda]

Forgive me if Barry or someone else has already mentioned this, but my impression is that current-day New Orleaneans chafe at “the Big Easy,” the way San Franciscans don’t like “Frisco.” Again, my impression is that they prefer “the Crescent City” as a nickname, which “problematizes” this finding of Barry’s: “In an interview with Larry McKinley in The Times-Picayune on January 25, 1976, talking about his days at the radio station WYLD:
“We were told ‘Don’t say Crescent City.'”

Ben

> Date:    Mon, 4 Mar 2019 02:33:47 +0000
> From:    "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Barry Popik, continued work on "Big Easy"
> 
> Barry Popik continues to do extensive work on American speech and word origins,
> 
> and I now share one such item of his; it should be of interest to name researchers
> 
> in Louisiana. If anyone in ads-l personally knows a historian interested in Louisiana
> 
> place names/nicknames, perhaps Popik's message below could be drawn to their attention.
> 
> 
> Gerald Cohen
> 
> 
> From: Barry Popik <bapopik at aol.com>
> To: <snip>
> Sent: Sat, Mar 2, 2019 4:45 pm
> Subject: The "Big Easy" 1911 dance hall in Gretna (East Green) has been located. Please tell others,
> 
> then put up a historical marker.
> 
> 
> Re:
> https://www.bigeasymagazine.com/2019/02/28/the-origin-of-the-nickname-the-big-easy-isnt-what-you-think/
> https://www.bigeasymagazine.com/2019/02/26/new-orleans-city-of-nicknames/
> ...
> To the Gretna City Council:
> ...
> The location of the 1910s "Big Easy" dance hall has been found. It was not located at New Orleans
> at all. "Big Easy" was at Lafayette and Eighth in Gretna (East Green), and it burned down in 1911.
> ...
> For the 25th annual Gretna Heritage Festival, you can honor the "Big Easy."
> ...
> I have asked Gretna's mayor to verify the "Big Easy" location, and to ask everyone if they can
> add more information (relatives of "Big Easy" dance hall owner Paul Batson are surely still alive),
> and then, finally, to honor the "Big Easy" location with a plaque, possibly during the Gretna Heritage
> Festival.
> ...
> I have done additional work on the origins of "Big Easy" (finding 1960s citations) and "Big Apple"
> (which originated at the Fair Grounds 100 years ago), and I have tried to give it to Gretna and to New
> Orleans <snip>
> ...
> Barry Popik
> www.barrypopik.com
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org