Above, a 1934 plaque in the The Big Apple Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in the year 2006.
Follow @barrypopik
Above, The Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, in the March. 17, 1931, Turf Play. p. 7.
Pay attention to Robert Emmerich introduce The The Big Apple. a success song from 1937. Music compiled by Bob and done by Tommy Dorsey’s Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics compiled by Buddy Bernier and sang by Edythe Wright. Audio supplied by Dorothy Emmerich.
Entry from Feb 10, 2010
“Don’t enable your mouth write checks the body can’t cash”
“Don’t enable your mouth write a cheque (or “checks”) the body (or “ass”) can’t cash” has been utilized in black British since a minimum of the 1960s. Comedian Switch Wilson (1933-1998) used the road on tv while performing in drag because the character “Geraldine.” However, a 1978 interview with Lou Rawls proclaiming that he heard the saying from his mother (see below) most likely signifies that Switch Wilson wasn’t the first one to utilize it.
The old saying (recorded in publications since a minimum of 1966) implies that one shouldn’t run one’s mouth, a treadmill’s body/ass/behind might be unable to support it.
Wikipedia: Switch Wilson
Clerow Wilson Junior.. known professionally as Switch Wilson. (December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998) was a united states comedian and actor. Time magazine featured his image on their own cover and named him “TV’s first black superstar”.
Dixie T-shirts
I’M Going To WRITE A Cheque YOUR ASS CAN’T CASH! T-shirt
Google Books
Norwood
By Charles Portis
New You are able to, NY: Simon Schuster
1966
Pg. 184:
“Don’t enable your mouth write a cheque that the ass can’t cash, boy.”
19 The month of january 1972, Eugene (OR) Register-Guard. “Should City Officials Redly Jump Into Things By Doing This?” by Don Floyd, pg. B1, col. 3:
Quoting comedian Switch Wilson, Kelly stated the venture materialized because of “letting the mouth area write a cheque the body can’t cash.”
Google Books
Vehicle: a manuscript
By Harry Crews
New You are able to, NY: Morrow
1972
Pg. 60:
“Someday, should you’re not careful, you’ll write a cheque together with your mouth that the ass can’t cash.”
Time magazine
Quick Cuts
Monday, Sep. 24, 1973
White-colored LIGHTNING concerns a great old boy named Gator McKluskey (Burt Reynolds) who’s serving amount of time in the Arkansas pen for messing around with illegal liquor.
(. )
Bridges, whenever he isn’t overburdened through the script’s Snuffy Cruz dialogue (“Don’t write checks together with your mouth your ass can’t cash”), can reduce right through to real depth
Google Books
2 March 1978, Jet magazine, “Lou Rawls Won’t Let Fame Spoil Him Again” by Bob Lucas, pg. 61, col. 1:
“There were individuals old ‘mother wit’ sayings she accustomed to let me know, like, ‘Don’t enable your mouth write a cheque your behind can’t cash.’ So when she’d punish me: ‘I compensated the price is the boss.’”
Google Books
Runnin’ Lower Some Lines:
The word what and culture of Black teenagers
By Edith A.
Folb
Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Press
1980
Pg. 44:
Don ‘t enable your mouth overload your ass or Don ‘t enable your mouth write a cheque your ass can’t cash describes provocative talk, talk that may frequently result in a fight.
27 May 1985, Miami (FL) Herald. “Florida Routs Princeton, 14-4,” pg. 1D:
“There’s a classic stating that Switch Wilson used as he performed Geraldine. ‘Don’t enable your mouth write a cheque the body can’t cash.’ “
Google Books
African-American Proverbs in Context
By Anand Prahlad
Jackson, MS: College Press of Mississippi
1996
Pg. 239:
Don’t enable your mouth write a cheque that the behind can’t cash.
Infmnt: Maxine Hudnall, 35, clerk, Oakland, California, 11-17-71. From Oakland Army Base, 1970.
Usage: “My informant explained that somebody in her own office told this to a different worker which had a inclination to exaggerate everything.”
Pg. 240:
Usage: Don’t enable your mouth write a ticket your ass can’t cash. Don’t invest that you could’t defend.”
Infmnt: Emma Gordan, 69, Berkeley, California, 10-71. Berkeley Archives.
Usage: “Your mouth will result in a cheque, your ass will have a chase.” Used frequently by adults to children, as a means of claiming “If you talk an excessive amount of you might be unable to talk the right path from the situation.” Utilized by peers near going from the verbal battle to an actual one. Means: Don’t make statements that you can’t physically support.