Great souvenir to gift: The Big Apple Statue of Liberty and the backdrop of the New York City skyline magnet.
The Big Apple moniker first gained popularity in connection with horseracing. Around 1920, New York City newspaper reporter John Fitz Gerald, whose beat was the track, heard African-American stable hands in New Orleans say they were going to “the big apple,” a reference to New York City, whose race tracks were considered big-time venues. Fitz Gerald soon began making mention of the Big Apple in his newspaper columns. In the 1930s, jazz musicians adopted the term to indicate New York City was home to big-league music clubs. The nickname later faded from use and wasn’t revived until the early 1970s, as part of a tourism campaign to spiff up New York’s image.