highball

[Gerald Cohen]

At 4:01 PM -0500 3/5/02, James A. Landau wrote:
>In a message dated Sun, 3 Mar 2002  4:07:47 PM Eastern Standard
>Time, Gerald Cohen <gcohen at UMR.EDU> writes:
>
>>      Whoever invented the drink-term "highball" might have first heard
>>  this term somewhere else (railroad? poker? carnies?) and then applied
>>  the non-alcoholic term to the drink due to the high glass it was served
>>  in.
>
>A couple of Web pages say that the drink got its name because it was
>a favorite drink of railroad workers (one even makes the
>preposterous claim that the railroad signal was named after the
>drink).  I have seen no evidence that railroaders drank this
>particular drink, but it is a plausible suggestion:  "highball" =
>"full speed ahead" suggesting "full speed ahead to the bar" etc.

     "Highball" (drink) might plausibly derive from the R.R.
"highball"-signal although I too wonder whether railroaders actually
drank highballs with any frequency. More likely, the drink was
invented and named by a bartender familiar with the railroad term.

      Barry Popik's research has turned up two candidates for this
honor. R.C. Magill of St. Louis and Patrick Gavin Duffy (evidently of
NY). The latter possibility seems particularly attractive, although
it is not yet conclusive.
If we only had some evidence linking Duffy with railroad workers, we
might have our man. Below my signoff is an excerpt from Barry's June
1, 2000 ads-l message:

---Gerald Cohen

>       This is from The Official Mixer's Manual (New York, 1934) by Patrick
>  Gavin Duffy, pg. VIII:
>       'It is one of my fondest hopes that the highball will again take its
>  place as the leading American drink.  I admit to being prejudiced about
>  this--it was I who first brought the highball to America, in 1895.  Although
>  the distinction is claimed by the Parker House in Boston, I was finally given
>  due credit for this innovation in the New York Times of not many years ago.'