THE STIRRING STORY

Most of us have a few swizzle sticks saved somewhere.  A talisman of a drink we had in Las Vegas, or maybe from the Plaza Hotel in New York City, a memory in miniature of the night we saw Dean Martin at the 500 club in Atlantic City, or from that great date that somehow never worked out.  Though many dates didn't work out, the swizzle stick's existence has thrived since its new twist by Jay Sindler in February 1934, just two and a half months after the repeal of Prohibition.

Sindler, an employee of the Converse Rubber company and an avid inventor with several patents, sat contemplating his martini at the Boston Ritz Carlton's bar one night, faced with the challenge of removing his olive without dipping his fingers into the gin.  I like to think Sindler was on at least his second or third martini when it all came together for him. He envisioned a small spear, cheaply made of wood, with a paddle-like handle, imprinted with the establishment's name, like miniature billboards.  It would be something the patrons could take home, cheaper than a book of printed matches and cheaper still than the vanishing ashtrays and cocktail glasses..  Sindler's patent, number 1,991,871, was granted on February 19,1935 and in his three page patent application he used a cherry as an example, .. The difficulty of securing a cherry resting at the bottom of a cocktail glass without resorting to boorish antics obnoxious to people accustomed to polite social usages is so well known as to have become a matter of public comment and jest.

Polite society caught on to Sindler's invention and his new company Spir=it was off and running.  The die cut flat wood swizzles were also handy for spearing finer foods, French fries, pickles and the like.  There was, however, competition. with Repeal, all the great glass compainies began manufacturing bar ware.  The stirring rods once used by 1920's Flappers were now mass-produced and used to stir mixed drinks.  But the glass swizzles didn't have the pointed spear and were costly to silk-screen with a hotel logo.  Some glass companies had the novel idea of inserting a tube of paper with the advertising opy into a glass rod and then sealing the end, like a message ina bottle, but again a costly answer.  Today this type of hollow and easily broken stirrer is one of the most sought after by collectors.  Collectors searching for these hollow stirrers are also on the hunt for the Bakelite and Catalin swizzles imprinted with an estab lishment's name that were made in those days.

Fine establishments dreamed up imprinted plastic swizzles that were possible as a result of major developments in injection molding that came along with World War II,  In the 1950's swizzlers were manufactured of plastic in an incredible array of shapes and colors and served as inexpensive advertismeents for clubs, casinos, restaurants, cruise ships and airlines.  Many bars made do with a stock inexpensive plastic swizzle, a straight tapered rod with a paddle signboard on top which was imprinted with the tavern's logo.  But soon, as we entered the Space Age of the 1960s, there was a boom in the electronics industries, calling for precision plastic parts, which led to major advancements and application of new technologies in the field odf thermosetting plastic injuection molding.  What was good for the space race was good for the swizzle and the period from the late 1950's throughout the 1960's proved to be a Golden Age for signature swizzles.  Soon drinks served on TWA flights sported a signature red propeller swizzle.  At Trader Vic's a swizzle in the shape of a Hawaiian outrigger canoe paddle with a Tiki God handle graced drinks at the venerable bar; the Thunderbird Hotel and Swim Club in Miami Beach featured a Flying Thunderbird on top of a swizzle with its name in large script over th shaft.  Playboy's signature bunny head graced the long swizzles club goers found in their drinks, and swizzles in the form of a Chinese lantern, palm tree, shamrock, lovster, giraffe, elephant, hippos and more, in every color imaginable appeared in glasses.

Taking a swizzle as a memento was encouraged.  It served as a promotional calling card or a remembrance of a wonderful trip or night on the town.  Swizzles disappeared from nightclubs and hotel bars as fast as they were set out.

During the Carter years those guests who set out to the Nations most elite dinner parties at the White House failed to retreve the popular memento.  The White House was dry.  It was beer and wine only at State funcitons and dinners, no doubt the reason Jimmy was a one term President.  He also demeaned and derided the fifty dollar martini lunches for businessmen.  Leading to an amusing rebuttal from former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-TX, .. If the Good Lord hadn't intended us to have a three martini lunch, then why do you suppose He put all those olive trees in the Hlly Land?

With National clubs such as the INTERNATIONAL SWIZZLE STICK COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION, -ISSCA, and thousands of collectors World-wide, sociologists and anthropologists agree that these miniature pop culture icons give us an inside look at the past and are a valued collectable worh saving for future generations.  And besides, they can still be used to stir your favorite drink.

End.       

Stephen Visakay is author of Vintage Bar Ware, Collector Books, 1997, and has written for antique , collectible, and trade magazines.  His cocktail shaker exhibition,  Shaken, Not Stirred, Cocktail Shakers and Design  has been featured in museums Nationwide, including The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, The Louisiana State Museum and The Milwaukee Art Museum

Copyright, All Rights Reserved, may not be reprinted with out permission, 8/22/09