The Term and Meaning of the "Big Apple"

The term "Big Apple" was adopted in 1971 as the theme of an official advertising campaign aimed at luring tourists back to New York City. The ad campaign aimed to recast New York, then generally held to be noisy, dirty and dangerous, in a more positive light by stressing the city's excitement and glamour.

As to the origin of the term "Big Apple" itself, the prevailing wisdom for many years was that it was used in the 1930's, by jazz musicians in particular, but that no one knew where it first arose or how it became a synonym for New York City. Fortunately, Professor Gerald Cohen of the University of Missouri did some serious digging and uncovered use of the term "Big Apple" in the 1920's by a newspaper writer named John FitzGerald, who wrote a horse-racing column (called "Around the Big Apple") for the New York Morning Telegraph. FitzGerald's use of the term predated the jazzmen's "Big Apple" by about a decade.

It was still unclear where FitzGerald got "Big Apple," however, until Barry Popik, a remarkably persistent New York City slang historian, took up the search. Popik discovered that in 1924 FitzGerald had written that he first heard the term from stable hands in New Orleans, who referred to New York racetracks as "the Big Apple" -- the goal of every trainer and jockey in the horse racing world.

Armed with the true story of "Big Apple" (and awesome determination), Popik spent the next four years trying to convince the New York City Government to officially recognize FitzGerald as the popularizer of "Big Apple." Just this past February he finally succeeded, and the corner of West 54th Street and Broadway, where John FitzGerald lived for nearly 30 years, is now officially known as "Big Apple Corner."

NYCwebStore.com Team

Contributing information by Word-Detective.

Highest Ever One-Day Snowfall in Central Pak

Well, February 12th, 2006 turned out to be the highest ever one-day snowfall in Central Park with 26.9 inches of snow. This broke the December 1947 record of 26.4 inches.

December 26-27, 1947. A surprise snowstorm brought 26.4 inches, the heaviest 24-hour accumulation of snow in New York City’s modern records. Most of the snow actually fell within a 12-hour period.

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Contributing Information:
CNN Weather
Accuweather
NH Dep of Safety

NYC's 2nd Largest Snow Storm in History (Feb 12, 2006)

Our blog of New York City's gifts and souvenirs takes a departure to talk about the "Blizzard of 2006"--the 2nd largest snow storm in New York City's history on February 12th, 2006.

It's still snowing at 2:15pm in New York City. We've received nearly 23 inches in snow, beating the 1888 record of 21 inches, but short of the 26 inches in 1947. It's always beautiful in New York City when there's a blizzard. For one reason, it rarely happens in the Big Apple. Also, the streets turn from a rapid succession of cars, trucks and busses to a lonely snow-covered car or bus desperately making it's way through the white tracks.

For more details about New York City, visit:
http://www.NewYork.com
http://www.NYCtourist.com
http://goNYC.About.com

Keep Warm!

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