From
old blue eyes himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt to, of course, Bond (James Bond),
the Martini has been a power drink for the rich and famous.
.....FDR mixed Martinis with enthusiasm, but he occasionally
introduced unconventional ingredients such as anisette or fruit juice and
was said to be a sloppy mixer.
.....Bebe
Rebozo used to make a classic "In
and Out" Martini for Richard
Nixon, who liked his Martinis about
seven to one. Rebozo would pour vermouth into the shaker of ice,
swing it around once, and ceremoniously empty it before adding the gin.
Nixon reportedly was drinking Martinis the night the Watergate crises
drove him from office.
.....In
1935 MGM was making China Seas,
starring Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. Robert
Benchley, a featured player, was required
to spend most of the day floating in the studio's water tank. When he was
finally allowed to climb ashore he reputedly announced, "I must
get out of these wet clothes and into a dry Martini." Never mind
that publisher Bennett Cerf later claimed that the event happened at Cerf's
house and not on a movie set, or that Alexander
Woollcott, Charles Butterworth, Charles Brackett,
and Mae West have also been given credit for the line both on and off screen.
.....(SSCHMOE)
told me, "The famous writer Ernest Hemingway also enjoyed Martini's,
his favorite being "The Montgomery" named after the WW2 English
Field Marshall who liked his odds on the battle field to be 15 to 1. Hemingway
liked his ratio of gin to vermouth at 15 to 1, so that's why he would always
call out for Montgomerys..."
.....In
his later years W.C. Fields started the day with two double Martinis - "angel's
milk," he called them - one before breakfast and another one after.
He took an oversized cocktail shaker full of Martinis to the studio for
the day's shoot. It is estimated the actor drank about two quarts of
gin a day. By the way, those things on his famous proboscis were called
"gin blossoms."
.....James
Bond, was the human embodiment of
the Martini. Bond was reckless with his women, rough on enemy agents, but
extremely precise about his cocktail, asking it to be, "Large and
very strong and very well made." And more precisely, "Shaken and not stirred." In Casino Royale, Bond tells the beautiful double agent
Vesper Lynd about his special Martini made with gin and vodka and is suddenly
inspired to name it for her. The birth of "The Vesper".
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