Ask Blake

New York City just wouldn't be "the Big Apple" if not for a pair of nameless New Orleans stablehands.

Hey Blake,

In 1997, I dedicated "Big Apple Corner" in New York City, honoring the 1920s track writer who popularized the phrase "the Big Apple." He admitted that he heard the term from black stablehands at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, but those black stablehands have never been honored. Can you tell the story? And if one of these is anyone's father or grandfather (as I hope), can that person please contact me or you?

Barry Popik
225 East 57th St., Apt. 7P
New York, NY 10022
(212) 308-2635

Dear Barry,

"Big Apple." "Big Easy." What do they have in common? Well, all you folks in the Big Easy may be in for a big surprise.

It was turfwriter John FitzGerald who first introduced the phrase "the big apple" to his columns, thus providing the first reference to New York City racetracks and later to New York City as a whole.

In the 1920s, FitzGerald was a sports writer for the New York Morning Telegraph. He wrote a column called "Around the Big Apple." In fact, Feb. 18, 2004 was the 80th anniversary of the column's debut. Appearing over the column was an outline of an apple with a silhouette of the New York City skyline featuring the Woolworth Building, the world's tallest building at the time. That historic column of 1926 began this way: "The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York."

FitzGerald made frequent visits to New Orleans. He loved our city and winter racing at the Fair Grounds and old Jefferson Park. And here is where he first heard the phrase "the big apple."

In 1920, FitzGerald was here racing horses with a friend when he heard on the backstretch, in a conversation between two African-American stablehands, those immortal words that he first incorporated into his racing column on May 3, 1921: "J.P. Switch, with Tippity Witchet and other of the L.T. Bauer strain is scheduled to start for 'the big apple' tomorrow after a prosperous spring campaign at Bowie and Harve de Grace."

But it wasn't until the column of Feb. 18, 1924, that FitzGerald explained the origin of the phrase. He wrote: "Two dusky stablehands were leading a pair of thoroughbreds around the 'cooling rings' of adjoining stables at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and engaging in a desultory conversation. 'Where y'all goin' from here?' queried one.

"'From here we're headin' for The Big Apple,' proudly reported the other.

"'Well, you'd better fatten up them skinners or all you'll get from the apple will be the core,' was the quick rejoinder."

Not once but twice did FitzGerald credit the stablehands. The second explanation came in his column of Dec. 1, 1926. His explanation went this way: "So many people have asked the writer about the derivation of the phrase 'the big apple,' that he is forced to make another explanation. New Orleans has called it to his mind again." And he repeated the story about overhearing the stablehands and borrowing the phrase from them.

FitzGerald wrote about New Orleans a few days later, referring both to two of our nicknames and 'the big apple': "The New Orleans of December 1926 is well deserving of the title 'the city that care forgot.' Not in years, during his visits to charted and uncharted places in this broad land of the free has the writer come across a madder, more care-shorn spot. If one wants action, the Crescent City is the place to find it. Š There are plenty of palaces of chance open nightly outside and inside the city for those who like a little faro, the leaping dominoes, and the whirl of the roulette wheel. Henry 'Lob' Cohen is among our distinguished visitors from 'the big apple' who is operating at one of the more prominent road houses."

So, there you have it -- the connection between the Big Apple and the Big Easy. FitzGerald was the first to use the phrase to mean "the big reward," "the big time" in horseracing, but there is no question that he heard it first right here!

Question for Blake? Email blresponse@gambitweekly.com or mail to 3923 Bienville St., 70119.

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