A common observation is that, without the weather, people would have nothing to talk about. “How would people start a conversation if it were not for the weather?” was cited in 1912.
Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard (1868-1930) famously wrote in his “Abe Martin” comic strip in February 1914:
“Don’t knock th’ weather. Nine-tenths o’ th’ people couldn’ start a conversation if it didn’ change once in a while.”
Wikiquote: Kin Hubbard
Frank McKinney Hubbard (1 September 1868 - 26 December 1930) was an American cartoonist, humorist, and journalist.
Sourced
Don’t knock th’ weather. Nine-tenths o’ th’ people couldn’ start a conversation if it didn’ change once in a while.
. Abe Martin’s Primer : The Collected Writings of Abe Martin and his Brown County, Indiana, Neighbors (1914).
1 February 1912, Milford (IN) Mail, pg. ?:
How would people start a conversation if it were not for the weather.
18 February 1914, The Public Press (New Albany, IN), pg. 5, cols. 1-2:
Abe Martin’s Philosophy
INDIANAPOLIS NEWS
(...)
Don’t knock th’ weather. Nine-tenths o* th’ people couldn’ start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.
28 March 1914, The Evening Star (Washington, DC), “Abe Martin Says,” pt. 1, pg. 3, col. 8:
Don’t knock th’ weather. Nine-tenths o’ th’ people couldn’ start a conversation if it didn’ change now an’ then.
Google Books
Abe Martin’s Primer:
The Collected Writings of Abe Martin and His Brown County, Indiana, Neighbors
By Kin Hubbard
Indianapolis, IN: A. Martin
1914
Pg. ?:
Don’t knock th’ weather. Nine-tenths o’ th’ people couldn’ start a conversation if it didn’ change once in a while.
Google Books
The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
By Robert Andrews
New York, NY: Columbia University Press
1989
Pg. 317:
Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.
Kin (F. McKinney) Hubbard (1868-1930)
American humorist, journalist
Twitter
Social In Indy
@SocialInIndy
“Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.” - Kin Hubbard
10:06 PM - 28 Feb 2015
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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