Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Broadway, New York City; thus used generically for similar entertainment centres in other cities.

1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Marathon in the Mud’ in Ade’s Fables 289: Now he could give the Cackle to all the Knights of the Road who had blown their Substance along the gay White Ways of Crawfordsville, Bucyrus, and Sedalia.
1915		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 28 June [synd. col.] It was he who led Miss Tanzer up and down the Gay White Streak and posed as the gay and festive boulevardier.
1916		Valentine’s Manual of Old N.Y. 114: [heading] WHEN THE GAY WHITE WAY WAS DARK [...] The small beginnings of the ‘Gay White Way’ occurred in the early eighties of the last century.
1918		D.G. Rowse Doughboy Dope 17: Habitat: Some Gay White Way, either in New York or wherever he happens to be.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 78: ‘The Gay White Way,’ he said aloud in a croaking voice. ‘The Gay White Way.’.
1935		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 5 June [synd. col.] A Broadway sentimentalist writes that the eventual passing of the Gay White Way is foretold in a descriptive romanza by Ford Madox Ford.