Who was Harvey Wallbanger? Everybody remembers Arnold Palmer was a golfer. Harvey Wallbanger, not a lot.
This unusual and barely aggressive sounding title adorned one of the standard cocktails of the Seventies, however the supply of the moniker has light from standard reminiscence over the a long time. On this article we’ll hint again the reality of the query you forgot to ask.
Anybody with the surname ‘Wallbanger’ seems like somebody you don’t wish to go to your bar or social gathering. So how did this cocktail change into all the fashion within the period of huge collars and bell bottoms? The background follows the sample of loads of mixology origin tales, with two completely different timelines; the colourful entertaining legend and the timeline of what occurred. Let’s begin with the legend.
Within the early Fifties, there (supposedly) was a watering gap referred to as the Blackwatch Bar on Sundown Boulevard in Hollywood. This institution was presided over by veteran bartender Donato Antone, higher referred to as “Duke.” Apparently, Duke had a knack for creating drinks that will quickly go on to change into very well-known. He later ran a bartending academy referred to as Antone’s Faculty of Mixology and claimed to have invented cocktail staples together with the White Russian, the Kamikaze, and the Rusty Nail.
The story goes that one of many regulars on the Blackwatch was Tom Harvey, a devoted surfer from Manhattan Seaside. Whereas he displayed grace and stability shredding his board over the waves of the Pacific, he subsequently celebrated his oceanic athleticism by closely having fun with Duke’s drinks. This overindulgence led Harvey to lose his important senses of course and spatial consciousness and go round strolling into partitions because the nights progressed.
Proficient wave rider Tom Harvey earned a damaging fame for getting blitzed at Blackwatch and careening across the bar like a bull in a China store. His favourite drink was a variation on the normal screwdriver invented by Duke, so the intense orange cocktail was christened after the person, and the Harvey Wallbanger was born.
A California surfer dude who beloved getting sozzled and careening into the partitions of a Sundown Strip dive sounds nearly cartoonish. Within the Seventies, a advertising and marketing marketing campaign for the drink appeared, that includes cartoons of Harvey Wallbanger in numerous settings throughout completely different promotional objects. The marketing campaign was sponsored by Galliano Liqueur, makers of the essential third ingredient within the recipe for a Harvey Wallbanger following vodka and orange juice. Extra on them later.
The cartoon Harvey Wallbanger doesn’t match the look of a match and tanned California surfer. It’s nearer to the picture of a man who has spent extra time on the bar than the seashore, to his detriment. The character’s physique is the alternative of lean and muscular. His wisps of hair are frazzled and his eyes present an expression of shocked confusion, like he’s battling a daunting hangover, feeling his accidents from wall-banging, questioning his intoxicated habits on the Blackwatch, or the entire above. He has wrinkled baggage underneath his eyes. His toes are outrageously massive, nearly as large as his physique, with white painted toenails blaring out of mammoth tan sandals. He often wears a saggy tank high with vast blue and purple horizontal stripes and matching shorts.
The general picture could also be one of many ugliest, most unattractive cartoons of all time (no offense, Harvey). Harvey Wallbanger makes Joe Camel appear to be Brad Pitt. Why would anybody wish to drink something related to this goon? He seems bewildered and misplaced in each advert however he has a catchphrase.
“Harvey Wallbanger is the title. And I could be made!”
The promos all embody the essential recipe for fast reference. The one distinction between a typical screwdriver cocktail and a Harvey Wallbanger is the addition of Galliano liqueur. Our analysis into the lineage of Harvey Wallbanger reveals Galliano was the true orchestrator of his creation.
Duke Antone didn’t even reside in Hollywood through the Fifties; he really lived in Hartford, Connecticut. Within the following decade, he befriended George Bednar, the advertising and marketing director of McKesson Imports, the American distributor of, you guessed it, Galliano liqueur. In 1969, business artist Invoice Younger was commissioned to create the befuddled picture of Harvey Wallbanger for the Galliano advertising and marketing marketing campaign. Someway all of it labored; the drink turned a nationwide pattern, and Galliano was quickly sending over half-a-million instances yearly from Italy to the U.S.
Invoice Younger was a proficient designer and good man. His promoting cope with McKesson included the very clever provision that Younger would earn a share on each case of Galliano imported to the States. He was, due to this fact, motivated to make additional efforts in spreading the Harvey Wallbanger picture far and vast. His son, Will Younger, later recalled how his father would make journeys to school spring break locations to move out Wallbanger t-shirts and merchandise and host Wallbanger branded occasions. He additionally had the intense thought to anoint certified college students as Harvey Wallbanger Ambassadors, tasked with spreading the straightforward recipe throughout campus.
When Invoice Younger handed away in 2016, Will advised the Rochester newspaper Democrat & Chronicle:
“I don’t bear in mind a lot (from these days), however I bear in mind when impulsively my dad went from driving a Volkswagen to a BMW. Our complete world modified with the Harvey Wallbanger. That was his first knock-it-out-of-the-park second.”
Mixology historian David Wondrich theorizes, “With Younger’s Harvey to blaze the way in which, Antone’s easy, even dopey, drink would go on to be the primary drink created by a marketing consultant to truly take the nation by storm.” You know the way the saying goes. “By no means let the reality get in the way in which of a intelligent advertising and marketing marketing campaign.” Surf’s up!
