Gibson Cocktail
William Curtis Gibson (1857-1921), a New York editor of Puck magaine and later of Cosmopolitan magazine, invented the “Gibson” cocktail. Edward W. Townsend (1855-1942) wrote in The Examiner (San Francisco, CA) on January 26, 1896:
”...hence I drink and talk about the Gibson cocktail. It is the invention of my friend, Mr. William Curtis Gibson, the managing editor of ‘Puck.’ As we observe to be the case in all epoch-making inventions, its greatness lies in its simplicity. It is composed solely of one part gin and one part vermouth.”
it had been thought that the Gibson cocktail was named after American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) or San Francisco businessman Walter D. K. Gibson, but these origination theories are not correct. The Gibson cocktail was popularized at San Francisco’s Bohemian Club.
Wikipedia: Gibson (cocktail)
The Gibson is a mixed drink made with gin and dry vermouth, and often garnished with a pickled onion. In its modern incarnation, it is considered a cousin of the ubiquitous martini, distinguished mostly by garnishing with an onion instead of an olive.
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The exact origin of the Gibson is unclear, with numerous popular tales and theories about its genesis. According to one theory, it was invented in the early 20th century by Charles Dana Gibson, who created the popular Gibson Girl illustrations. Supposedly, he challenged Charley Connolly, the bartender of the Players Club in New York City, to improve upon a martini. As the story goes, Connolly simply substituted an onion for the olive and named the drink after the patron.
Another version now considered more probable recounts a 1968 interview with a relative of a prominent San Francisco businessman named Walter D. K. Gibson, who claimed to have created the drink at the Bohemian Club in the 1890s. Charles Clegg, when asked about it by Herb Caen, also said it was from San Francisco, not New York. Other reporting supports this theory; Edward Townsend, former vice president of the Bohemian Club, is credited with the first mention of the Gibson in print, in a humorous essay he wrote for the New York World published in 1898.
Newspapers.com
26 January 1896, The Examiner (San Francisco, CA), pg. 6, col. 4:
GIBSON COCKTAIL.
By the author of “Chimmie Fadden.”
Just at the minute that an “Examiner” reporter asked me to-day for a column to be printed on this page I couldn’t consider anything else than the matter I was discussing then. This matter was contained in a cocktail glass, and as my judgment is set with adamantine inflexibility against cocktails as they are generally known, I should be doing violence to my own feelings as well as to the feelings of your polite readers to mention the subject were it not that this cocktail is not really a cocktail at all. Do I seem to be speaking paradoxically? Then let me explain to you: He happened to find me drinking a sample concoction which, on the little island of Manhattan, is known as the Gibson cocktail. Relinquishing my desire to speak only to your politetest readers, I will, if you permit me, discourse for a moment for the benefit and physical and mental and moral good of your less-polite readers who are addicted in any degree to the cocktail habit. To drink any cocktail is a sin which I have often taken opportunity to condemn; yet being a reasonable man and realizing the inevitableness of sin in some degree, I feel that he does wisely who minimizes any sin, hence I drink and talk about the Gibson cocktail. It is the invention of my friend, Mr. William Curtis Gibson, the managing editor of “Puck.” As we observe to be the case in all epoch-making inventions, its greatness lies in its simplicity. It is composed solely of one part gin and one part vermouth. Now that you have had it explained does it not seem that it should have been discovered long ago? yet it remained for my friend GIbson, after many painstaking years of investigation, to dsicover that these ingredients compose the perfect cocktail. Will you try one? Is it not convincing?
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EDWARD W. TOWNSEND.
Newspapers.com
9 February 1942, San Francisco (CA) Chronicle, “It’s News to Me” by Herb Caen, pg. 9, col. 1:
The famous Gibson cocktail (gin, vermouth and an onion instead of a Martini olive) was invented in S. F. by one Dr. Gibson—at the Bohemian Club bar.
Newspapers.com
16 November 1952, San Francisco (CA) Examiner, “Susan Smith Says: Favorite Dishes Honor S.F. Notables,” Smart Set Section, pg. 2, col. 2:
Gibson Cocktails originated in San Francisco. On a visit to our city, Charles Dana Gibson was guest at the Bohemian Club.
Newspapers.com
15 August 1969, Fresno (CA) Bee, “Words, WIt, and Wisdom” by William and Mary Morris, pg. 4-B, col. 6:
DEAR MORRISES: In a recent column you credited to origin of the Gibson cocktail to the well-known artist Charles Dana Gibson. The Reader’s Digest for March 1965 says that Hugh Gibson, a former U.S. ambassador, was the first to suggest putting a small onion into a martini instead of the usual olive.—Paul Schack, Literary Research, Glen Rock, N.J.
A—Yes, we have heard that theory, too. Indeed we have debated it, with some genteel heat, with William Nichols, former publisher of This Week and a friend of Ambassador Gibson. However, we stand by our guns because we know the man who made the first Gibson, Charles Connolley, longtime head bartender at New York’s celebrated theatrical club, The Players. Charlie retired a couple of years ago but, on several occasions, he assured us that it was the creator of the Gibson Girl who also created the Gibson cocktail.
Spirits and Cocktail Community
Gibson Cocktail
post by martin on Dec 18, 2023
Before it disappears into the bowels of the Interwebs, yesterday Barry Popik on Twitter shared an interesting column from the January 26, 1896 edition of the San Francisco Examiner.
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Splificator
Dec 2023
This is a great find, for several reasons.
First off, priority. Before this, the earliest reference I know to the Gibson is from the New York World, February 13, 1898:
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Interestingly, this is from a humor article by Edward W. Townsend–the same person who wrote the 1896 article. Taken together, the two articles suggest the Gibson came from New York, not San Fransisco as was believed in the early 1900s; that it was originally made with genever, not British gin, and that it was named after a Gibson completely unknown to drinklore (there, we candidates we find are Charles Dana Gibson, the artist, and Walter D. K. Gibson of San Francisco, both members of the Bohemian Grove club).
One place where drinklore appears to have got it right is in its suggestion that the drink came out of the Bohemian Grove, a vector for transmission identified by Cocktail Bill Boothby as early as 1908. If it didn’t originate there, the connection between William Curtis Gibson and his set and the Bohemian Grove set gives us pathway for the New York drink to become a San Francisco one, although with English gin instead of the Dutch stuff.
Punch
Wait, Does Anyone Know What a Gibson Is Anymore?
October 21, 2024
Story: Amanda Arnold
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To be fair, the Gibson’s template hasn’t remained fixed since its creation. Born sometime in the late 1890s, it once was closer in spirit to a 50/50 Martini, featuring a 1:1 ratio of gin (or genever) to dry vermouth. Its defining characteristic was its lack of orange bitters, which were then a typical component of the classic Martini. Its early days have been traced to San Francisco’s Bohemian Club in 1898, where stories held that it was named after either a businessman or an artist (Walter D.K. Gibson or Charles Dana Gibson, respectively). Based on a column published in the San Francisco Examiner two years prior, though, it’s possible that the drink came out of New York City, where it was created by the managing editor of humor magazine Puck, another Gibson (William Curtis).
In any case, it wasn’t until sometime in the early 1900s that bartenders began serving the drink with a single pickled pearl onion—and to this day, the garnish is the drink’s most distinguishing feature. But much like the dirty Martini, which has gotten even dirtier in recent years, the Gibson has recently entered stranger, more savory territory.