Big Apple
"Big Apple" is a nickname for New York City. It was first popularized in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald, a sports writer for the "New York Morning Telegraph". Its popularity since the 1970s is due in part to a promotional campaign by the New York tourist authorities.
Big Apple
By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use "Big Apple" and were using it in contexts other than horse-racing. "The Big Apple" was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the term in the 1940s and 1950s, but by the 1960s it had generally come to be known as an old name for New York.