Many cities in the world have quite obvious nicknames: Rome, “the eternal city”, because of its age since it was built in antiquity. Las Vegas, “the city of sin”, compared to gambling or even Avignon, “the city of the Popes” since the sovereign pontiffs lived there from the 14th to the beginning of the 15th century. But that of New York, “the Big Apple”, he is very mysterious… Its origin, we owe it to horse racing!
It is John J. Fitzgerald, a horse racing journalist New York Morning Telegraph who first used these words in 1921 when writing: “The Big Apple, the dream of every boy who has ridden a thoroughbred and the goal of all riders. There is only one Big Apple. It’s New York.”
This nickname, Fitzgerald stole it from the stable boys of New Orleans. Among themselves, they talked about the races that take place there, races that are very popular because they offer the most important prizes in all of the United States for the winners. What was called “the Apple”. So “Big Apple” because big price!
To listen
455. Why do we call New York “Big Apple”?
00:02:11
This nickname quickly went beyond the racetracks and was adopted by the jazzmen 30s who saw New York as “The place to be”, the capital of music. But over time it fell into disuse replaced by “the city that never sleeps” that Frank Sinatra immortalized in his song New York, New York.
It was only in 1971 that it reappeared. The city then had a deplorable image: it was dirty, crime reached record levels. So to improve all this, the tourist office is launching a major advertising campaign using this Big Apple, a nickname found by a jazz fan and which sounds positive and attractive. Even if at the time, we can quickly have glitches!
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>> Oh yeah? From Monday to Friday, Florian Gazan answers in one minute all the essential, existential, sometimes completely absurd questions that cross your mind. Very useful or totally useless knowledge to shine in society, absolutely incredible anecdotes to share, amazing stories to tell. And each time, you will say to yourself “Ah yeah?”. An RTL Originals podcast.
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2023-04-12 07:00:00
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