[Ads-l] Antedating of "Big Apple" (In the Sense of Large City)

[Ben Zimmer]

In the U.S., at least, it's possible to view full page images from this
volume of _Associated Advertising_, not just snippet view.

---
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Associated_Advertising/w21IAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=RA5-PA79
Associated Advertising, June 1917, p. 79
"The Great Big Red Apple that grows in the very Top of the Tree"
In this graphic sentence, Mr. P.S. Florea, Secretary of the Associated
Advertising Clubs of the World, described the City of New York and its
position in the United States market, for the American manufacturer. Said
Mr. Florea:
"You men in New York City, who know the New York market, do not appreciate
the timidity with which some of the otherwise well-informed business men,
in other sections of the country, look upon the New York market.
"To them it is like A GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL RED APPLE; but an apple that
grows IN THE VERY TOP OF THE TREE. It looks far away and hard to reach, and
they need someone familiar with that market, to tell them HOW TO CLIMB THE
TREE and reap the harvest of rich fruit that looks so inviting."
---

The rest of the piece continues to refer to the New York City market as
"the Big Red Apple." As an extended metaphor, it's reminiscent of the 1909
citation from _The Wayfarer in New York_ (OED's earliest cite for sense 2
of "big apple"),

---
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Wayfarer_in_New_York/NI0tAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR15
Edward S. Martin, _The Wayfarer in New York_ (introduction), 1909, p. xv
New York is merely one of the fruits of that great tree whose roots go down
in the Mississippi Valley, and whose branches spread from one ocean to the
other, but the tree has no great degree of affection for its fruit. It
inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the
national sap.
--

Further discussed by Dave Wilton here:
https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/big-apple

--bgz

On Mon, Jul 6, 2026 at 12:02 AM Pete Morris <mr_peter_morris at outlook.com>
wrote:

> How about this ?
>
>
> https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Associated_Advertising/w21IAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22big+apple%22&dq=%22big+apple%22&printsec=frontcover
>
> << ... population of the United States within daily commuting and
> shopping distance of this heart of New York.
>
> And here are a few facts about the  Redness and Richness of this
> great big "Apple"
>
> More than forty per cent . of the personal Income Tax for the United
> States
> is paid by the people within this New York and Suburban Circle . >>
>
>
> Google dated to 1917.  Caveats apply, but searching within the document
> suggests it's somewhere close to that date.
>
>
> https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=w21IAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA7&img=1&pgis=1&dq=1917&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U3elm7OBUA1RVfxpbkfK0n_28dCDg&edge=0
>
>
> https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=w21IAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA63&img=1&pgis=1&dq=1917&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U1xhtL6pY-hznjB9uyTolKNleVZUg&edge=0
>
>
>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From "Shapiro, Fred" <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Date 04/07/2026 14:06:52
> Subject Antedating of "Big Apple" (In the Sense of Large City)
>
> >The term "Big Apple," referring to the circuit of New York racetracks,
> has been researched extensively by Barry Popik.  He found the earliest such
> reference dated May 3, 1921, authored by sportswriter John J. Fitz Gerald.
> Popik was able to pinpoint Fitz Gerald's picking up the term from African
> American New Orleans stable hands in January 1920.  His work on "Big Apple"
> is among the most outstanding high points in the annals of historical
> lexicography.  Gerald Cohen has also made important contributions to the
> "Big Apple" research.
> >
> >The oldest uses of "Big Apple" meaning a big city were found by Ben
> Zimmer, Jesse Sheidlower, and myself.  In the black newspaper Chicago
> Defender, May 15, 1920, the reference was to Los Angeles.  The oldest use
> specifically meaning New York was dated September 16, 1922.  Both of these
> occurrences were written by "Ragtime Billy Tucker" of the Defender paper,
> and neither of them were about race tracks.  Barry Popik has tirelessly
> worked to publicize the role of the black stable hands and the accurate
> story of the rise of "Big Apple" as New York City's slogan.
> >
> >I have now found the following citation:
> >
> >1916 Freeman (Indianapolis) 16 September 5/5 (GenealogyBank)  Mr. Bennie
> Jones (Texas Teaser) joined us in Blue Earth, Minn., and is featuring the
> minstrel band.  Hello, Walter Robison, I am about to bring Bennie Jones
> back to the big apple.  Your old friend Irvie Richardson.
> >
> >The context of this cite is an article in the black Freeman newspaper,
> titled "Notes from P. G. Lowery's Band with Hagenbeck & Wallace Circus" and
> written by Wm. E. Fields (apparently a member of the band or circus).
> Bennie Jones was a black comedian and singer in the Lowery band.  It seems
> that Fields was giving some kind of shout-out to Jones, quoting Richardson,
> who is described as "alto and 1st tenor."
> >
> >The "big apple" in Fields's article presumably refers to a place,
> probably a large city.  There is no clue in the article as to which city.
> The Freeman paper in the GenealogyBank database gives detailed information
> about the whereabouts of the Lowery band in late 1916.  I have not found
> any evidence of that band appearing in New York around this time.  There is
> plentiful evidence that the band was in the Midwest and South around this
> time.  The Freeman indicated in its October 21, 1916 issue that Lowery's
> band was breaking up and Bennie Jones was becoming "stage manager for the
> Allen's Minstrels."
> >
> >I wonder whether the large city implied in 1916 was Chicago.  In
> mid-September there was mention of imminently bringing Bennie Jones "back
> to the big apple."  Articles in the Freeman soon after that have Jones's
> band being in smaller cities.  Then in the Freeman, Nov. 11, 1916, Jones
> was said to be in Chicago.  Perhaps that is where Irvie Richardson was
> about to bring Jones.
> >
> >Fred Shapiro
>

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