elizabeth S. Titus

upper West Side/CPW

A BIG APPLE

Origin unclear, but by 1920s New York writers used "Big Apple" in a horse-racing context. "The Big Apple" was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the name in the 1940s and 1950s.
By the 1960s, "the Big Apple" was known only as an old name for New York. In the early 1970s, the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau (now NYC & Company, the official marketing and tourism organization for New York City), began promoting "the Big Apple" for the city. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in 1997 signed legislation designating the southwest corner of West 54th Street and Broadway, the corner as "Big Apple Corner."