Shake 'Em Up! A Practical Handbook Of Polite Drinking

ELLIOTT, Virginia and STONG, Phil D. [80] pp. Brewer and Warren, Inc. 1930 First Printing 8" x 4 1/2" The illustrations in this book are by Herb Roth A cocktail book published during Prohibition with hors d'oeuvres and mixed drink recipes, mostly dreadful, yet such was the state of entertaining "for the American People in the twelfth year of Volstead, 1930." The Volstead Act prohibited offering instructions on how to make alcohol (it was also a crime to tell someone where alcohol could be found) and the few publishers willing to skirt the law and issue cocktail books often tried to pretend the books weren't actually cocktail books. In this case, Elliott and Stong call for non-alcoholic gin and Scotch in their drinks. Under the heading Household Hints (page 68), they supply a recipe for bathtub gin, or how to flavor pure alcohol to taste something like gin (censored in later printings). Real spirits were hard to come by and so most of the recipes are designed to hide the poor quality booze with juice and other mixers. As a cocktail book - that is, a book with recipes one might actually want to drink - Shake 'em Up is a disaster. But it is arguably the most honest account of typical American drinking habits during the later years of Prohibition. The Savoy Cocktail Book from the American Bar in London came out later the same year. In a widely circulated review of the Savoy, Gerald McClean joked about the lack of American liquor options: "The home wrecker calls for gin, vermouth, Kummel, Charbreaux, and pineapple syrup. Now, we ask you, where in this land of the free is one going to find pineapple syrup?" Shake 'em Up is one of few cocktail books of the time written by a woman. It is also the first book by Phil Stong, who is best remembered for his novel State Fair (1932) and its four film adaptations, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical.…