MIXOLOGY

The French 75

BY DAVID WONDRICH

The spring of 1940 was not a good time for lovers of freedom and civilization. On May 10, Adolf Hitler thrust a panzer-tipped rapier deep into the heart of France. Two and a half weeks later, the battered British Expeditionary Force fell back on the tiny Channel port of Dunkirk. On May 27, the evacuation began. When Tallulah Bankhead, Queen of the American Stage and one of the cursing-est, drinking-est, smoking-est Americans who ever lived (she even scared Alfred Hitchcock!) heard the news, she vowed that she would not take another drink until the British were back in Dunkirk. First, though, she put in a call to room service. Her order? Three French 75s, which she proceeded to drink by herself. A little low-grade cheating aside, she pretty much managed to keep her pledge until Dunkirk was finally liberated at the end of the war.

Now, most might attribute that feat to willpower, but anybody familiar with the French 75 will know better: It was the hangover. For those not familiar with the drink, it consists of a shot of gin, a little lemon juice, and some sugar, in a tall glass filled with Champagne. Three of these taken in rapid succession will fill the hollowest hollow leg. That said, treated with the respect it deserves, it’s a most delightful drink.

It also has the distinction of being the only member of the cocktail pantheon to come out of the Prohibition-era speakeasies of America, although, like any “legitimate businessman,” it takes great pains to disguise its true origins. This has led to a good deal of loose talk and speculation, which can be threshed out into two main schools. The first, looking at the Champagne and the drink’s name (which alludes to the iconic French field gun of World War I) claims it as a Gallic creation. However, no actual evidence of a French origin has ever turned up. The second school, looking at the gin, claims the drink as English and points to its supposed first appearance in print in the canonical Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 as proof. But this ignores the fact that Harry Craddock, who compiled the Savoy book, pinched his recipe for the drink from Here’s How!, a cheeky little cocktail compendium put out in 1927. More importantly, it ignores the testimony of Ms. Marty Mann, who recalled winning a drinking contest in 1921 where the drink was “a French 75, a highball consisting of homemade bathtub gin plus expensive Champagne.”

I say “more importantly” because Ms. Mann went on to become the first female member of Alcoholics Anonymous and the founder of the National Council on Alcoholism. So, Tallulah has three French 75s and doesn’t drink again for five years. Marty Mann has considerably more than three (one would think) and swears off the stuff forever. The moral: Don’t have more than two.