Why is New York called " The Big Apple?"?

Answer 1

In the 1920s, a sportswriter for the Morning Telegraph named John Fitzgerald overheard stablehands in New Orleans refer to New York City's racetracks as "the Big Apple." He named his column "Around the Big Apple." A decade later, jazz musicians adopted the term to refer to New York City, and especially Harlem, as the jazz capital of the world. There are many apples on the trees of success, they were saying, but when you pick New York City, you pick the big apple.

Answer 2

In early Jazz parlance, a great gig or location was called an "apple". Your local tavern was just a gig; playing the stage at the Odeon downtown in front of a paying audience was an apple (as was the Odeon itself).

New York, being the most desirable spot for a performer of almost any talent, was known as "The Big Apple".

Answer 3

Check this out:

http://www.salwen.com/apple.html

There are, apparently, a bunch of reasons for it. Mostly, though, I think it was jazz musicians that made it popular.

Hope this helps!