THE DRINK
Mary Tudor took the throne as Mary I in 1553, the first ever queen of England and Ireland. She despised Henry VIII’s Reformation and wanted to return England to the Catholic Church. She reinstituted The Heresy Acts and persecuted and burned hundreds of Protestants at the stake, earning her the nickname “Bloody Mary.”
The predecessor to the Bloody Mary drink was the Oyster Cocktail, a drink that reportedly came to London from the Manhattan Club in New York in 1892. The drink closely resembles a modern day Bloody Mary save for the fact that it was non-alcoholic, was served warm and contained seven small oysters. It quickly evolved into the still alcohol free Tomato Juice Cocktail that was extremely popular as a health tonic during the 1920s. The Bloody Mary is often attributed to a bartender named Fernand “Pete” Petiot, who is said to have created his first version in the early 1920s at Harry’s American Bar in Paris. After Prohibition, Petiot moved to New York where he presided over the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. Here he enhanced the drink with horseradish, Tabasco, lemon juice and celery salt creating the drink we know today. But as with most classic drinks there are several origin stories.
The Vaudeville performer and Hollywood actor George Jessel claimed he created the Bloody Mary in 1927. After a heavy night of drinking in Palm Beach he and a friend were still at it at 8 am. Having a volleyball date with a Vanderbilt at 9.30 he asked the bartender for a hang over and sobering up cure. The bartender reached for a bottle gathering dust at the bottom shelf, a bottle of vodka. Thinking it smelled like rotten potatoes he asked for Worchestershire Sauce, tomato juice and lemon to cover it up. Feeling better he realized he had created a new drink. A friend called Mary came into the bar still wearing her white evening gown. Trying the drink she spilled it over her dress and exclaimed “Now you can call me Bloody Mary.”
As for the celery stick garnish, it didn’t appear until the 1950s or 1960s at the Byfield’s Pump Room in Chicago. Frequented by stars like Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor and the like it was called “the most famous restaurant in the USA”, at least by the owner, Ernie Byfield himself. One of the celebrity guests, no one knows who, asked for a celery stick when the bar had run out of swizzle sticks.
THE DESIGNER
Ingegerd Råman was born in Stockholm in 1947 and is one of Sweden’s most beloved designers. Originally working with ceramics she has had a long parallel career as a glass designer. Starting at Johansfors Glassworks, (1968–1972), she continued to Skruf in 1981. In 1990 she started at Orrefors, where she stayed for 13 years, becoming one of their most influential designers. Råman designed the glass Slow Fox in 2000.
BLOODY MARY DAY, JANUARI 1
After a long night of New Years Eve parties, January first was the natural candidate for becoming Bloody Mary Day even though a Tomato Juice Cocktail or a Virgin Mary might be better for recuperating.