Harvey Wallbanger
Cocktail
| Cocktail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Mixed drink |
| Base spirit |
|
| Served | On the rocks: poured over ice |
| Standard garnish | orange slice and maraschino cherry |
| Standard drinkware |  |
| Commonly used ingredients |
|
| Preparation | Stir the vodka and orange juice with ice in the glass, then float the Galliano on top. Garnish and serve. |
| Commonly served | All day |
The Harvey Wallbanger is a mixed drink made with vodka, Galliano, and orange juice. It is a variant of the screwdriver, and was very popular in the United States in the 1970s.
History
The Harvey Wallbanger was created in 1969 as a marketing campaign by McKesson Imports Company, importer of Galliano, as a means of driving sales of Galliano. The campaign was headed by George Bednar, marketing director of McKesson, and a cartoon character was commissioned from graphic artist William J. "Bill" Young in Lima, New York,[1][2] with the tagline that Bednar claimed to have penned: "Harvey Wallbanger is the name. And I can be made!"[3][4][5] The Harvey Wallbanger character was a surfer, appearing in various ads during the campaign, and was mentioned in print as early as 1969,[3] continuing into the 1970s.[6][7] The recipe displayed in the ads is:[1] "6 oz. O.J., 1 oz. vodka, stir with ice, splash in ½ oz. Galliano".
The cocktail itself is credited to three-time world champion mixologist Donato "Duke" Antone, of Hartford, Connecticut, where he ran a bartending school, Bartending School of Mixology and worked as a cocktail consultant.[3] It is unclear if Antone designed the drink for Galliano (to advertise the ingredient),[3] or renamed an existing drink, as suggested by his grandson, who claimed the earlier version was called "Duke's Screwdriver".[8] An implausible story of the origin is that it was invented in 1952 by Antone, and named after a surfer frequenting Antone's Blackwatch Bar on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. This is implausible because at the time, Antone was running a bartending school in Hartford, and there is no evidence of any "Blackwatch Bar" in Los Angeles at the time, so it is presumably a fabrication; spirits writer Robert Simonson goes so far as to say that "no sane person ever believed that story."[8]
Cocktail historian David Wondrich considers the Harvey Wallbanger the first successful consultant-created cocktail saying,
With Young's Harvey to blaze the way, Antone's simple—even dopey—drink would go on to be the first drink created by a consultant to actually take the nation by storm.[3]
Antone is also credited with the Freddy Fudpucker, which swaps vodka for tequila, but this was not nearly as popular.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b Andreatta, David (2016-10-24). "Remember Harvey Wallbanger? Man who made drink a hit dies". Democrat & Chronicle.
- ^ Cazentre, Don (2017). Spirits & Cocktails of Upstate New York: A History. American Palate. pp. 121–125. ISBN 9781467137003.
- ^ a b c d e Simonson, Robert (December 14, 2012). "Searching for Harvey Wallbanger". Saveur Magazine. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
- ^ "Obituary: George Bednar, 65, Was Successful Entrepreneur". News-Times (Danbury, CT). December 12, 2007.
- ^ Long, Sherry (December 11, 2007). "Area Cocktail King, Football Star Bednar Dies". Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader.
- ^ Commercial prints and labels: Volumes 21–26 by Library of Congress. Copyright Office in 1971
- ^ "Harvey Wallbanger is taking Bloody Mary's place at brunch; try a drink with Galliano." Sports Illustrated, p. 9 (May 31, 1971).
- ^ a b Dangremond, Sam (July 20, 2015). "How Classic Cocktails got their name". Town & Country Magazine.
