Big Apple Whore Hoax (1800s; proposed 1995-2006)
The "Big Apple" whore hoax was invented by Peter Salwen's web site in 1995:
"One of these, arriving in late 1803 or early 1804, was Mlle. Evelyn Claudine de Saint-Évremond. Daughter of a noted courtier, wit, and littérateur, and herself a favorite of Marie Antoinette, Evelyn was by all accounts remarkably attractive: beautiful, vivacious, and well-educated, and she was soon a society favorite. For reasons never disclosed, however, a planned marriage the following year to John Hamilton, son of the late Alexander Hamilton, was called off at the last minute. Soon after, with support from several highly placed admirers, she established a salon -- in fact, a brothel -- in a substantial house that still stands at 42 Bond Street, then one of the city's most exclusive residential districts."
(...)
"When New Yorkers insisted on anglicizing her name to 'Eve,' Evelyn apparently found the biblical reference highly amusing, and for her part would refer to the temptresses in her employ as 'my irresistable apples.' The young men-about-town soon got into the habit of referring to their amorous adventures as 'having a taste of Eve's Apples.'"
A president of Salwen's group, the Society for New York City History (SNYCH), has admitted to me that it's all a joke. It is a disgrace that this is on the web, even more a disgrace that it comes up first in search engines.
Nothing on the site checks out. New York was not "the Big Apple," "the real apple," "Eve's apple," or any other apple in the nineteenth century. The address "142 Bond Street" (the address "42 Bond Street" in 1995 was "corrected" to the nonexistent "142 Bond Street" in 2001) does not exist. Peter Salwen doesn't respond to queries about his site (at least not from me or my colleagues). There is not a single historical citation that connects "the Big Apple" with prostitution. Not one.
At one point or other, the New York Public Library, Museum of the City of New York, New-York Historical Society, and Gotham Center all had links to, or mentions of, this Big Apple whore hoax web site. The Big Apple Fest (2004) website quoted the hoax in its entirety. The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), writing about New York City's 2004 Big Apple Fest, titled its article, "What Would Madam Eve Think?" This was all even after The Encyclopedia of New York City (1995) was published, and after the street sign "Big Apple Corner" (1997) was approved by the mayor!
In 1999, the search engine Ask Jeeves advertised by putting stickers on fruit, and got people to type in the query, "Why is New York called the Big Apple?" Unfortunately, most people went to the hoax website and were told that "Big Apple" comes from (fictional) whores! Language Log wrote an 2004 article, "Save the Big Apple," about the popular hoax.
Those interested in the history of prostitution in New York City should read Timothy J. Gilfoyle's wonderfully researched City of Eros (new edition 1994). There is nothing in that book about "Big Apple."
2006 UPDATE:
This website changed since at least April 24, 2006. The horseracing evidence is now credited as authoritative. My name is misspelled as "Barry Popick." No mention is made of the old website and its disgraceful hoax contents. The "Big Apple" Wikipedia page and this website -- both containing correct answers -- probably necessitated the end of the Big Apple whore hoax.
Salwen.com
Various accounts have traced the "Big Apple" expression to
"Depression-Era sidewalk apple vendors, a Harlem night
club, and a popular 1930s dance known as the "Big Apple."
One fanciful version even links the name with a notorious
19th-century procuress!"
(...)
"The older generation of jazzmen specifically credit Fletcher
Henderson, one of the greatest of the early Big Band leaders
and arrangers, with popularizing it, but such things are probably
impossible to document. Be that as it may, the ultimate source
actually was not the jazz world, but the racetrack."
"One of these, arriving in late 1803 or early 1804, was Mlle. Evelyn Claudine de Saint-Évremond. Daughter of a noted courtier, wit, and littérateur, and herself a favorite of Marie Antoinette, Evelyn was by all accounts remarkably attractive: beautiful, vivacious, and well-educated, and she was soon a society favorite. For reasons never disclosed, however, a planned marriage the following year to John Hamilton, son of the late Alexander Hamilton, was called off at the last minute. Soon after, with support from several highly placed admirers, she established a salon -- in fact, a brothel -- in a substantial house that still stands at 42 Bond Street, then one of the city's most exclusive residential districts."
(...)
"When New Yorkers insisted on anglicizing her name to 'Eve,' Evelyn apparently found the biblical reference highly amusing, and for her part would refer to the temptresses in her employ as 'my irresistable apples.' The young men-about-town soon got into the habit of referring to their amorous adventures as 'having a taste of Eve's Apples.'"
A president of Salwen's group, the Society for New York City History (SNYCH), has admitted to me that it's all a joke. It is a disgrace that this is on the web, even more a disgrace that it comes up first in search engines.
Nothing on the site checks out. New York was not "the Big Apple," "the real apple," "Eve's apple," or any other apple in the nineteenth century. The address "142 Bond Street" (the address "42 Bond Street" in 1995 was "corrected" to the nonexistent "142 Bond Street" in 2001) does not exist. Peter Salwen doesn't respond to queries about his site (at least not from me or my colleagues). There is not a single historical citation that connects "the Big Apple" with prostitution. Not one.
At one point or other, the New York Public Library, Museum of the City of New York, New-York Historical Society, and Gotham Center all had links to, or mentions of, this Big Apple whore hoax web site. The Big Apple Fest (2004) website quoted the hoax in its entirety. The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), writing about New York City's 2004 Big Apple Fest, titled its article, "What Would Madam Eve Think?" This was all even after The Encyclopedia of New York City (1995) was published, and after the street sign "Big Apple Corner" (1997) was approved by the mayor!
In 1999, the search engine Ask Jeeves advertised by putting stickers on fruit, and got people to type in the query, "Why is New York called the Big Apple?" Unfortunately, most people went to the hoax website and were told that "Big Apple" comes from (fictional) whores! Language Log wrote an 2004 article, "Save the Big Apple," about the popular hoax.
Those interested in the history of prostitution in New York City should read Timothy J. Gilfoyle's wonderfully researched City of Eros (new edition 1994). There is nothing in that book about "Big Apple."
2006 UPDATE:
This website changed since at least April 24, 2006. The horseracing evidence is now credited as authoritative. My name is misspelled as "Barry Popick." No mention is made of the old website and its disgraceful hoax contents. The "Big Apple" Wikipedia page and this website -- both containing correct answers -- probably necessitated the end of the Big Apple whore hoax.
Salwen.com
Various accounts have traced the "Big Apple" expression to
"Depression-Era sidewalk apple vendors, a Harlem night
club, and a popular 1930s dance known as the "Big Apple."
One fanciful version even links the name with a notorious
19th-century procuress!"
(...)
"The older generation of jazzmen specifically credit Fletcher
Henderson, one of the greatest of the early Big Band leaders
and arrangers, with popularizing it, but such things are probably
impossible to document. Be that as it may, the ultimate source
actually was not the jazz world, but the racetrack."