Gibson Cocktail (1914, 1964)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    I don't vouch for these stories.  We'll see what the CHICAGO TRIBUNE has.
   OED has 1930 for the "Gibson cocktail."


(GOOGLE GROUPS)
 From: Bushido (professormalt at mindspring.com)
Subject: Gibson cocktail
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: alt.drinks.scotch-whisky
Date: 2000/05/25
I think there are about as many stories on the origin as there are
storytellers.  In Chicago of course, we claim credit for the origin.  The
urban myth goes there were twin sisters named Gibson who liked martinis, but
not olives.  They cajoled the bartenders in town to put two onions in their
martinis instead, twins for twins.

One of the best places to get a Gibson in town is the classic steakhouse
"Gibson's" near Rush street.  While all the tourist types flock to Morton's,
Gibson's is one of the finest insider steakhouses in the city (along with
Gene and Georgetti's).  I think they've been serving Gibsons there since the
days of Al Capone (prohibition notwithstanding).

Slainte,
Bushido


(GOOGLE)
http://alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1933/article.asp?year=1993&url=observations
CLASS OF 1933
1993 Newsletter
OBSERVATIONS FROM HERE AND THERE
 John Bradley Green
(...)
                         The Gibson Cocktail.  The most cosmopolitan person, the only boulevardier I ever knew was my good friend, the now-departed Walter Campbell Gibson.  Walter was a partner in the firm of H. Hentz, through which the master speculator, Bernard Baruch, traded in the 20s and 30s.  Walter lived much of his life in Europe, particularly in Paris and knew everyone there.  A moderate drinker, he favored the cozy, small Ritz bar in the rear of the Ritz Hotel on the Place Vendôme.

                         His favorite drink was a dry martini, straight up.  In those days there was no such thing as "on the rocks".  One day Walter asked for a pearl onion in his cocktail instead of the customary olive.  Although probably not a usual staple  in a prewar Parisian bar, the usual Ritz efficiency produced a small white onion with a little effort.  Thus the Gibson was invented and named after the man who preferred an onion to an olive.


(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
      WALTER G. GIBSOH,*I STOCkROOm, oaI  (sic)
              New York Times  (1857-Current file).       New York, N.Y.: Dec 9, 1964.                   p. 50 (1 page):
   Walter C. Gibson, a partner in Hentz & Co., 72 Wall Street, members of the New York Stock Exchange, died on Monday at the Knickerbocker Club, 2 East 62d Street, where he resided.  he was 63 years old.
   Mr. Gibson had been with the Hentz organization since 1928, when he joined its Paris office, then newly opened.  He later was manager there.
   He was born in Utica, N. Y., and attending Amherst College.  Before joining Hentz he worked for the International Banking Corporation in China and for the National City Bank of New York (now the First National City Bank) in Barcelona, Spain.
   Between 1931 and 1934 he opened two other branch offices of the Hentz company in Paris, and seasonal offices in Vichy, Biarritz, Nice and Cannes, France, and Monte Carlo.
   Although it might be challenged elsewhere, it was widely believed within the Hentz organization that Mr. Gibson was the originator of the Gibson cocktail.  He was said to have explained to the bartender at the Ritz Hotel in Paris that he liked his dry martini with a pickled onion in it.  The barman promply christened the drink a "Gibson."
(...)


(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
      ON WITH THE DANCE.
       EUGENE BROWN..       Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File).       Los Angeles, Calif.: Feb 13, 1914.                   p. II4 (1 page):
   Pearlie is an authority on Egyptian cigarettes and knows exactly how much vermouth to mix in her Gibson cocktail--in fact she is a thoroughly modish and accomplished woman of fifteen summers and several hard falls, but thus far she has been overlooked by the great family journals and there has been no printer's ink illumination with Pearlie's toe flickering in the air like a pinwheel.