Cheesecake and Cocktails

One of the more interesting cocktail books in my library is Bottom's Up, compiled and edited by Ted Saucier.

Ted Saucier had a successful career as a "flack," or publicist for the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.  From the late 1930's through 1950's he was frequently mentioned in Billboard magazine for his publicity prowess in promoting entertainment at the Waldorf.  He also served as the technical advisor for hotel operations in the 1945 movie "Weekend at the Waldorf."

Published in 1951 and pre-dating Playboy magazine by two years, it seems Saucier used the passion for pin-up girls and cheesecake, that blossomed in World War II, as a marketing hook to set his book of drink recipes apart from other others of the period.

In the early 1900’s, “cheesecake” was news photographer slang for a photo whose chief merit was a view of a woman's "gams" or legs. By the 1940's it had become synonymous with images characteristic of famous "pin-up girls" like Betty Grable and Jane Russell. A 1951 ad for a program on improving business  marketing, featured a segment entitled "How the Magic of Cheesecake Builds the Gross." 

In the description of the book, Bottom's Up, much is made of the illustrations having been done by "distinguished artists." This seems to echo the old joke about buying Playboy for its articles.  Not that the articles are without merit, just that they are incidental to the intent of the magazine. 

The background of the artists contributing “cheesecake” to Bottom's Up supports the claim.  Al Dorne, provider of the cover/title art, had done considerable advertising art as diverse as Lifebuoy soap and the U.S. Coast Guard.  Born "in  the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge," leaving school at 13, he eventually became the president of the Society of Illustrators and founder of Famous Artists Art School - whose ads were featured in comic books and magazines in the 1950-60's.

The twelve full page, glossy, provocative images "by twelve of America's  most distinguished artists" in a style we see show up in Playboy by artists like Vargas, is not the only similarity to Playboy magazine.  

Patterson's margin sprite

Nieman's "femlin"

Bottom's Up margins feature decorative sprites, done by Russell Patterson. Leroy Neiman's "femlin" in Playboy appears to have been inspired by Patterson's work in Bottom's Up.  Patterson really was a distinguished artist.  He created seminal images of the "flappers" of the 1920's and influenced the artwork of others, around the world, with his "Patterson Girl,” a much sought after image in advertising and magazine covers.  The Patterson Girl was as well known to Americans of the time, as were the Ziegfeld Girls.  In 1931 he was described as an "illustrator, cartoonist, and protege of William Randolph Hearst," continuing in the same vein into the 1950's.

Amongst the other illustrators, we indeed have a distinguished cast. James Montgomery Flagg was the creator of the WWI poster of Uncle Sugar saying he wants you for the U.S. Army.  Arthur William Brown was known for pencil and ink illustrations in magazines such as Colliers, the Saturday Evening Post and for books.  Ben Stahl, in addition to being an illustrator, was also the author of Blackbeard’s Ghost, which became a Disney movie.  James Falter was an illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post and prolific creator or WWII posters – particularly for the WAVES.  

"Picadilly Circus" by Bundy
in Bottom's Up

The story of Gilbert Bundy who, after a brilliant career as an artist/illustrator, went to the Pacific theatre, with the Marines, as a combat artist for Hearst newspapers is perhaps the most poignant--particularly today when PTSD is so often in the news. Trapped for several hours under enemy fire in the wreckage of a landing craft on Tarawa, beneath the bodies of dead Marines, he escaped by swimming away at night.  He survived the ordeal only to take his own life on the five-year anniversary of the event.

For those that are fans of illustrators, others contributing to Bottom’s Up are John La Gatta, Phil Dormont, Earl Cordrey, Bradshaw Crandall, and Robert Bushnell.  Works, as well as biographies, of all of the artists are viewable online and quite interesting.

Bottom's Up does not need the risque artwork to justify its space in a collection of cocktail books.  It contains 780 recipes; many are signature drinks from high society hotels, individuals, and watering holes, and are not to be found elsewhere.  The credited drinks reflect an array of people and businesses with whom a “flack,” for a hotel as prominent as the Waldorf, would have had contact.

Two drinks excerpted from Bottom’s Up that I particularly enjoyed are featured below.

Enric Madriguera, to whom this drink is credited, is unknowingly familiar to many of you. While his specialty was music with a Latin tempo, his rendition of “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee” is featured on the soundtrack of the movie “Paper Moon.”

Recipe & Artwork courtesy Bottom's Up

 Another, is one of the “railroad” drinks in Bottom's Up served on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe.  I did not have the pleasure of trying this drink as a passenger, but I had the opportunity to ride the Super Chief from Kansas City to Albuquerque in the 1960’s.

Recipe & Artwork courtesy Bottom's Up

What’s In A Name – The Florodora

I have missed two blogs since my last due to familial obligations and found myself today casting about for a theme to get me back on track.  Since I have an interest in the origin of drinks, and their names, I thought I would borrow from a previous effort and use the title “What’s In A Name” with the related drink(s) appended.  If this works, I may do more in the future.

In the early 1900's, preceded by the operettas of the 1880's, the American public became enamored with musical comedy.  The play Floradora receives much of the credit for this craze.  A popular play in England in 1899, Florodora opened in the Casino Theater of New York in 1900.  

The play involves the imaginary island of Florodora on which a perfume of the same name is made.  Said island was stolen from its rightful owner whose daughter still works in a factory on the island.  The rest of the plot is convoluted to the extreme but the cast, chorus line, and music seem to have compensated successfully.  A feature of the theater was a manikin in the lobby spraying “La Flor de Florodora” on the theatergoers.

After a slow initial start, publicists started promoting the play in a manner seen repeated by the movie studios in their heyday.  TV news coverage of the Kardashians pales to that given the Florodora troupe.  Newspapers featured daily stories about the cast members, their personal lives, how well they regarded one another and worked together, their romances and marriage prospects, and of the huge sums of money that the chorus girls were making by speculating on Wall Street.  To the latter, one has to wonder if their fiduciary success was due more to the stage door sugar daddies than Wall Street, but maybe I have seen too many old movies.  Ultimately, Florodora exceeded 500 performances.

Florodora was the first  musical comedy to use the device of “stunning” fashionable evening gowns, worn by attractive women, to create a memorable high point in a performance, a trend continued in the Follies of the 1920’s and 30’s.  Women would go to see the latest fashions, men to see attractively dressed women. 

At the time, the music was considered “bewitching,” and people were often heard humming or whistling the tunes.  Leslie Stuart, the composer, said his formula for writing the music of Florodora was to:

“…take one memory of Christy Minstrels, let it simmer in the brain for twenty years.  Add slowly for the music an organist’s practice in arranging Gregorian chants for the Roman Catholic Church.  Mix well and serve with a half dozen pretty girls and an equal number of well-dressed men.”

The original “Florodora sextette” or the “big six,” none over 5’4”, was so popular with the American public that chorus girls for years afterwards, claimed to have been part of the original sextette. Francis Belmont, an original “sextetter,” in true movie showgirl fashion, managed to marry an English duke.

Florodora, its music, and its stars were immensely popular in the early 1900's.  Like movie related marketing today, the musical comedy became linked to a variety of products.  A soft drink in Cuba, race horses and pedigreed dogs, assorted food products, china, dolls, cigars (“three for 10 cents”) and a hybrid long staple cotton named Florodora were but a few.  Having a fondness for ice cream, one of my favorites is the “Florodora Sundae” – 1 banana, strawberry ice cream, strawberry fruit, nuts, and whipped cream.

In 1920, there was a revival of Florodora, with more chorus girls, and more lavish costumes and staging.  It was so popular that Fannie Brice was inspired to do a parody in the Follies.

Riding its second wave of popularity, it once again gave advertisers a useful marketing hook.  Florodora actresses modeled veils in Cosmopolitan magazine.  A massage vibrator was advertised to help women achieve “Florodora” beauty and sponsored a Florodora beauty contest.  Use of “Florodora” in marketing persisted into the 1930’s, as both a product name, and as a derogatory expression for something passé from a previous era.  There was also a movie entitled “The Florodora Girl.”

In my books, there are at least three "Florodora" related recipes.  The first two, the Florodora cocktail and the Florodora Fizz, from a 1913 text, are the earliest recipes I have found.  The Florodora Fizz definitely predates the book. 

A 1902 advertising magazine, The Advisor, states “The Florodora Fizz has replaced the Ping Pong Punch as the fashionable drink of the season.”  

The Florodora Cooler, easiest for the home bar, is from a publication of the 1930’s.  It is probably a Prohibition era drink being gin based, its other ingredients doing well to make the “bathtub” gins of the Roaring Twenties more palatable.