Talk:The Little Apple

Kansas City as The Little Apple
It is a little known fact that Kansas City, Missouri was both affectionately and infamously known as the "The Little Apple" since the early 1900s. The phrase can be found on posters, post cards, and media from that era, which I have seen with my own eyes in local antique malls, junk stores, and restaurants, but am wanting for examples online. If I must, I will go to a local pizza shop I know of and photograph a contemporary-era poster that hangs on their walls.

The nickname dates to Kansas City's infamous mob era, when gambling, sex shows, and the most riotous bars lined 12th St. (instead of a huge Marriott hotel with blinken-lights as is there now). This is the era when the "middle deal", an unknown and thought-to-be-impossible sleight, was rumored to be in use by Kansas City card sharps (Dai Vernon came to Kansas City to discover and reveal to the magic and sleight of hand communities this versatile trick of the gamblers in KC).

Manhattan, KS, adopted the nickname "The Little Apple" in a public relations move of the 1970s. It is obviously a play on the name of their city and has no historical basis. Kansas City, Missouri, however, remains the true and authentic "Little Apple" of the plains (of course, we are happy and proud to share the title with our neighbors). Jizzbug (talk) 20:28, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Can you find any reliable third party sources that substantiate this? If you can I'll help you add the info.  But until you can you should probably refrain from adding the information back in the article, as several editors have removed it. Grey Wanderer (talk) 23:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Only one editor has removed it: I added the original reference, it was removed 10 days later, and now I have re-added it this second time.  Searching Google I was able to find the following page, so I'm not the only person to know about this old nickname of Kansas City:  http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=139774  Maybe some of these images could be used in the Kansas City article.  Jizzbug (talk) 05:18, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Found some more references and pictures: http://media.www.unews.com/media/storage/paper274/news/2003/02/03/News/Glazer.Wants.To.Shine.The.Little.Apple-359107.shtml http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=585529 Jizzbug (talk) 05:28, 8 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I have found a friend that has a history book documenting Kansas City, Missouri, as "The Little Apple". I will get the bibliographical citation tonight and edit this comment with that info. Jizzbug (talk) 19:58, 14 July 2008 (UTC)


 * It's possible that in the 1900's we were called the little apple. But quite obviously, we are no longer known as such, as Kansas City is not a thing like New York City. I have NEVER heard it being called the little apple in recent times. That is Manhattan, KS. I have been a resident of this city for all of my life and have NEVER EVER EVER heard anyone refer to us as the little apple. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Enorton (talk • contribs) 08:45, 5 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Enorton, good for you... You don't get out much.  NEVAR 4GET, NEVAR EVER EVAR!!  I have known someone in Manhattan, Kansas, that knew they stole "The Little Apple" from Kansas City (he was a journalism student from south KC studying at KSU), so what?  Some people are just ignorant of things, and so that's why Wikipedia exists, to correct us when we're wrong and to teach us things we didn't know. Jizzbug (talk) 01:41, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Umm... Shouldn't we be including past as well as current nicknames? Paris of the Plains is a historical nickname and isn't used nearly as much anymore as other nicknames... So by your logic Enorton, shouldn't we remove Paris of the Plains as well since KC is nothing like Paris as well? --KCMODevin (talk) 17:24, 5 August 2008 (UTC)


 * No. We are STILL called "Paris on the Plains". If you open up a KC textbook, you will see in just about every one of them that we were, and still ARE called "Paris on the Plains", because we have vast expanses of boulevards and parkways. I have NEVER seen us called "the little apple" in any text book. We still have all those boulevards and fountains, like Paris. We DO NOT have anything that is similar to New York (as much as I wish we would). Just because some editor stumbled upon a chapter called "The Little Apple" (as he admits), does NOT MEAN that that is a nickname for KC. I challenge someone to find "The Little Apple" somewhere else. Can they? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Enorton (talk • contribs) 08:26, 18 August 2008 (UTC)