How the Hallelujah Cocktail Became Famous During Prohibition

Within the fall of 1930, phrase of a brand new cocktail unfold throughout the US. It was referred to as the Hallelujah Cocktail, and it consisted of brandy and rum, shaken with lemon, vermouth, and grenadine. It was a number of years earlier than Prohibition ended, so most individuals first discovered of it not in a bar, however once they obtained a postcard with the recipe printed on the entrance. Nearly all of those had been mailed from Colón, Panama, on the Caribbean finish of the Panama Canal. Amongst these receiving postcards had been many delegates headed to the annual assembly of the 4 Sq. Gospel Church in Los Angeles.

Aimee Semple McPherson, a fiery and controversial evangelist … spoke in tongues, inveighed towards all method of evil, and healed her parishioners by means of the laying on of fingers.

The story went like this: One of many extra charming celebrities throughout Prohibition was Aimee Semple McPherson, a fiery and controversial evangelist. McPherson spoke in tongues, inveighed towards all method of evil, and healed her parishioners by means of the laying on of fingers. She embraced spectacle—her church had its personal artwork division—and was a pioneer in radio and information reel ministry.

McPherson usually discovered herself within the information—typically by intent, typically not. In 1926, headlines blared that she had drowned whereas swimming within the Pacific. No physique was discovered, regardless of heroic efforts. (One diver died trying to find her.) Miraculously, McPherson reappeared 5 weeks later with a harrowing however broadly disbelieved story of being kidnapped to Mexico. A secret lover could have been concerned.

In September 1930, affected by rattled nerves, McPherson sailed from the West Coast to Havana by means of the Panama Canal on a tropical cruise. The ship docked in Colón, and he or she disembarked and explored the port underneath the pseudonym “Betty Adams.” It was then she stopped by the Bilgray’s Tropic Bar and Cabaret for a pop. Or so it was mentioned by Max Bilgray, the proprietor, who claims he made a drink for her.

Bilgray, who was tall with brief grey hair and wore glasses, was as soon as described as “essentially the most distinguished man on the Atlantic aspect of the Panama isthmus.” He had been a saloonkeeper in Chicago and Denver, and had been working a bar in Wyoming when Prohibition pulled the plug. He decamped south to open his bar in Panama. He put piles of cash into it, spending almost $100,000 on a backyard oasis through which tipplers may calm down. The revered columnist Ernie Pyle claimed the Tropic Bar was as well-known as Sloppy Joe’s in Havana and Soiled Dick’s within the Bahamas.

All of this came about in the course of the Panama Canal’s golden age, when cruise ships recurrently plied the locks and prosperous vacationers disembarked to discover the unique eating places and bars. “Strict prohibition is maintained within the Canal Zone,” wrote traveler Ida Briggs Henderson in 1920, “however as there are solely imaginary strains between the cities, we discovered the bars had been extensive open.”

[Max] Bilgray mentioned he concocted a drink to have fun McPherson’s go to, which he dubbed the Hallelujah Cocktail. It grew to become well-known, and never totally by happenstance.

Bilgray mentioned he concocted a drink to have fun McPherson’s go to, which he dubbed the Hallelujah Cocktail. It grew to become well-known, and never totally by happenstance. Bilgray printed up a whole lot of postcards that includes the recipe. The primary letter of every ingredient—with some fanciful variations (“Ice from the crest of Mt. Sinai”)—spelled out “Bilgray’s.” The cardboard famous that this “particular concoction” had been invented “in honor of the go to of AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON (incognito).”

Any patron visiting his bar may compose as many free postcards as they cared to, and Bilgray would pay the postage to ship them to the US.

Among the many recipients: these attending the annual conference of McPherson’s 4 Sq. Gospel. “300 delegates … had been in an uproar Saturday on receipt of ‘greetings’ from M. Bilgray,” the Los Angeles Occasions reported. “The evangelist returned to the US very a lot irritated.” McPherson categorically denied she had ever visited Bilgray’s. Certainly, she mentioned she was very a lot aggrieved by “the lengthy streets of saloons and numerous kinds of leisure.” She believed that “the saloons would have been extra crowded and way more attention-grabbing if that they had been remodeled into revival assembly halls.”

McPherson’s husband, David Hutton, threatened to sue Bilgray for 1,000,000 {dollars} for defamation of character. Bilgray was unmoved.

McPherson’s estranged mom, Mildred “Ma” Kennedy, rallied to her daughter’s protection. “I have no idea how you can shoot, but when I had been in taking pictures distance I might begin in on that scoundrel and make him eat the phrases he has directed towards my little Aimee.” McPherson’s husband, David Hutton, threatened to sue Bilgray for 1,000,000 {dollars} for defamation of character. Bilgray was unmoved. On the mirror behind the bar he wrote, “Aimee favored ’em—so’ll you. They might price me 1,000,000 {dollars}—they’ll price you fifty cents.”

“We thought the entire enterprise vastly amusing—and surprisingly sufficient, the drink is nice,” wrote Charles Baker in his Gentleman’s Companion. “Any drink identified in all probability to 100 thousand folks within the final eight or 9 years in Panama alone should have had one thing in addition to postcard enchantment. It must be served in a big saucer-type champagne glass.”