Shirley Temple (non-alcoholic cocktail)

The Shirley Temple cocktail is a non-alcoholic cocktail (or “mocktail”) named after film’s 1930s child star Shirley Temple (1928-2014). According the the most frequent story, a bartender at Chasen’s restaurant (in Beverly Hills) created the drink for the then-underaged Temple. It’s often said that the drink was created for Temple’s tenth birthday, but that event did not take place at Chasen’s.
 
Hollywood’s Brown Derby restaurant is sometimes credited with the Shirley Temple cocktail. Sardi’s in New York City offered an early version of it.
 
Shirley Temple often visited Hawaii. (She met her husband, Charles Black, in Hawaii.) The Royal Hawaiian Hotel also is often credited for originating the drink.
 
Shirley Temple didn’t care for her name being attached to any cocktail, stating in 1962 that the cocktail connotation set a bad example for her young fans. Temple said that she had been approached by a firm that had wanted to make a “Shirley Temple Cocktail,” but she declined.
 
“Shirley Temple cocktail” is cited in print by 1946, although drink authorities believe that the cocktail was first created in the late 1930s. It’s often stated that the earliest version of the cocktail contained two parts ginger ale, one part orange juice, grenadine syrup and a cherry, but 1930s/1940s documentary evidence is lacking. Orange juice is seldom added today; 7 Up or Sprite often replaces the ginger ale. Alcoholic versions of the cocktail (called “Dirty Shirley” or “Shirley Temple Black”) contain gin, vodka, Kahlua, or Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch. The non-alcoholic version is almost never ordered by adults.
   
 
Wikipedia: Shirley Temple 
Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, and one-time U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States, 1976–1977.
   
Wikipedia: Shirley Temple cocktail
A Shirley Temple is a non-alcoholic mixed drink made with ginger ale or Sprite/7 Up, grenadine syrup and orange juice, garnished with a maraschino cherry and a slice of lemon. It is often served to children dining with elders to let them share the experience of drinking a cocktail, which is why it is sometimes called a kiddie cocktail.
 
The Royal Hawaiian Hotel at Waikīkī in Honolulu, Hawaii claims to be the inventor of the Shirley Temple cocktail, from the 1930s. There are several other popularized claims as to the origins of the drink. One notes a bartender at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, California is the inventor.The drink was named for the famous child actress Shirley Temple, who often visited the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the Beverly Hills restaurant.
 
Later, the popular beverage became available bottled in supermarkets as the first soft drink to include a cherry.

Variations
. The original drink contains two parts ginger ale, one part orange juice, and a small splash of grenadine.
. The ginger ale is often substituted with 7 Up, Sprite, or similar lemon-lime soft drink.
. The orange juice is sometimes omitted.
. A more typical, basic recipe involves a ratio of 8 oz ginger ale to 1 oz grenadine.
. Alcoholic variations on the recipe exist, which are often served in bars under the original “Shirley Temple” name, or called “Shirley Temple Black”, “Dirty Shirley”, “Robert Morris”, “Shirley Temple Midlife Crisis” and a “IZZY Temple”. A “Shirley Temple Black” consists of a “Shirley Temple” mixed with either gin or Johnnie Walker Black Scotch whiskey; the name is a play on words involving the eponymous actress’ married name.
. “The Madonna” is another variation of the drink, which includes all the normal ingredients, but without a cherry.
   
wiseGEEK
What is a Shirley Temple?
A Shirley Temple is a sweet, non-alcoholic drink named after the child actress Shirley Temple. The drink was invented for Shirley by a bartender in Beverly Hills, CA. The bartender worked at Chasen’s restaurant, a place Shirley Temple often frequented as a child. Since she clearly could not drink alcohol, Chasen’s sought a drink that would appeal to Shirley’s young palate, and the Shirley Temple was born.
 
It’s very unusual to see a traditional Shirley Temple today. The original recipe called for two parts ginger ale, one part orange juice and about a teaspoon to tablespoon of grenadine. It was usually garnished with a cherry and possibly an orange slice. While the cherry remains, and is many children’s favorite part about the Shirley Temple, most modern versions of the drink don’t include orange juice.
 
The ginger ale in the modern Shirley Temple is usually substituted with lemon-lime soda. These include sodas like Sprite or 7-Up, but usually not Mountain Dew since it is high in caffeine. Sometimes the Shirley Temple is made with Squirt, which has notes of grapefruit flavor in it.
 
The goal of the Shirley Temple is to contrast the sparkle and acid of the soda base with the sweet grenadine. Too much grenadine makes the drink painfully sweet, so a minimal amount should be added. Grenadine really functions as color, as opposed to flavor. A related drink is the Roy Rogers cocktail, made from cola and grenadine — essentially a cherry coke.
 
Askville
This story (Shirley Temple having a 10th birthday party at Chasen’s—ed.) does fit with the thread that the drink was invented in the late 1930’s by a bartender at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, CA - Chasen’s was opened 12/13/1936.  It was named for the famous child actress Shirley Temple, who often visited the restaurant. She was too young to drink alcoholic cocktails like the adult movie stars when she attended parties or visited with them.
 
But in fact the Royal Hawaiian hotel also claims the invention, also in the late 1930s, and this is on their website.  She did visit there frequently in the late 1930s.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Hawaiian_Hotel
 
To further mix up the pot, there are some references to how in the late 1930s the Brown Derby was marketing different drinks with celebrity names, including the grenadine and soda “Shirley Temple”. 
 
Temple Black, by the way, said she actually never liked the drink, and opposes the concept of cocktails (even non-alcoholic) for children.  Since she makes no reference to Chasens or the Royal Hawaiian regarding this drink, this weakens their claim.  The internet is full of legend.
   
Drink Street
Shirley Temple 
4 ounces Ginger Ale
2/3 ounce Grenadine
2 ounces Orange Juice
Build in a highball glass. Add Ginger Ale and orange juice over ice and sprinkle grenadine over it. Garnish with a lemon slice and a cherry.
   
Drinks Mixer
Shirley Temple recipe
20 cl ginger ale
3 cl grenadine syrup
Build in a highball glass. Add ginger ale over ice and sprinkle grenadine syrup over it. Garnish with a lemon slice and a cherry.
     
Wikipedia: Chasen’s
Chasen’s was a famous restaurant in Beverly Hills, California that was a favorite hangout for everyone from entertainment luminaries to world leaders. Located at 9039 Beverly Boulevard in Beverly Hills, it was the site of the preeminent Academy Awards party for many years and was also famous for its chili. In 1962 Liz Taylor had several orders of Chasen’s chili flown to the set of Cleopatra while filming in Rome. Many of its regular customers had booths named in their honor. The Ronald Reagan booth, now on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library museum, was where Reagan proposed to Nancy Reagan (neė Davis). Four decades later he took the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher there. Other well known people that had a booth were Frank Sinatra, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart and Groucho Marx, to name a few.
(...)
The Shirley Temple cocktail was invented at Chasen’s for its namesake who was too young to drink alcohol,...
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Shirley Temple, n.
[f. the name of Shirley Temple (b. 1928), American child film star.]
A non-alcoholic drink, usu. consisting of ginger ale and grenadine, served so as to resemble a cocktail.
1966 B. ROLLIN Non-Drinker’s Drink Bk. 21 Shirley Temple Sardi. Served to children at Sardi’s Restaurant in New York in lieu of a champagne cocktail… Dash grenadine… Crushed ice… Ginger ale… Maraschino cherry.
1973 T. PYNCHON Gravity’s Rainbow (1975) II. 246 He stops at last in front of Slothrop, who’s putting together a Shirley Temple for himself.
1977 U. CURTISS In Cold Pursuit (1978) xiii. 160 Jenny looks as though a Shirley Temple would set her on her ear.
1988 Advertising Age 12 Sept. 103/1 Shirley T, a cherry-flavor soft drink modeled after the familiar ‘Shirley Temple’ kiddie cocktail.
   
28 January 1946, Bradford (PA) Era, “Behind the Scenes in Hollywood” by Harrison Carroll, pg. 4, col. 4:
Shirley Temple at Lucey’s being served a “Shirley Temple” cocktail which the management serves to kids and which contains pink syrup and fruit.
 
24 August 1946, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “W.C.T.U. Hits Shirley Temple Film Scene,” pg. 2:
CHICAGO, Aug. 23. (U.P.)—The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union today asked United Artists Studios to delete a scene from Shirley Temple’s forthcoming picture, in which she allegedly sips her first screen cocktail.
 
Mrs. D. Leigh Colvin, W.C.T.U. president, said columnists have “announced generally” that Shirley is going to down her first drink in “The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer.”
(...)
In the role of a bobby-soxer visiting Actor Cary Grant’s apartment in his absence, Shirley is offered a cocktail, the studio explained. She sips it, makes a wry face, and spits it out. That, the studio asserted, isn’t taking a drink.
 
7 June 1948, Racine (WI) Journal-Times, pg. 15, col. 6:
Orange Juice
U.N. Favorite
LAKE SUCCESS, N. Y.—(U.P.)—
(...)
One was heard to order a Shirley Temple special. A Shirley Temple special is a reasonably harmless concoction of ginger ale and enough grenadine to color it a delicate shade of pink. Alcoholic content: nil. After effects: nil.
   
7 August 1949, Johnson City (TN) Press-Chronicle “The Teen Set” by Betty Betz, pg. 4B, col. 4:
“Why, Nicky Barbour!...What are you drinking?” I asked Peggy Lee’s little five-year-old daughter who patted her many layers of organdy petticoats with one hand hand and sipped what looked like an alcoholic drink with the other.
(...)
“This is a Shirley Temple cocktail!” she giggled, and then gulped down the whole thing with one swallow. She told me then that all of the kids in Hollywood drink Shirley Temple cocktails which contain ginger ale and a dash of grapefruit juice, served in a cocktail glass with an orange slice and a cherry.
 
10 October 1949, Winona (MN) Republican-Herald, “The Teen-Set” by Betty Betz, pg. 5, col. 4:
The drink was a “Shirley Temple cocktail” which is nonalcoholic and contains only ginger ale and fruit juice, so I certainly am not encouraging young Americans to adopt the martini habit.
 
15 February 1950, Waukesha (WI) Daily Freeman, pg. 7, col. 1:
He Says Women Drink
Far More Than Men Do
SAN FRANCISCO (UP)—Eastern men prefer Scotch whiskey, Westerners prefer bourbon—but women drink more than men and like anything alcoholic.
   
That’s the opinion of John H. Hensley, manager of the Hotel Mark Hopkins’ famous Top of the Mark cocktail lounge. Hensley has been catering to people’s tastes for potables for 20 years and feels (Col. 2—ed.) he knows a thing or two about drinking.
(...)
One of the most popular drinks in the sky room bistro is non-alcoholic. Made of fresh fruits and juices and ginger ale especially for ‘teen-agers who frequent the lounge, the Mark once called it the “Shirley Temple.”
   
After Miss Temple divorced her husband, John Agar, the hotel decided the name no longer was appropriate and that the movie star was a bit mature for the bobby-sox set. So the drink was changed to the “Shari Robinson,” the name of another young Hollywood starlet.
   
Google Books
Houston: Land of the Big Rich
By George Fuermann
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1951
Pg. 64:
Its pleasures of the bar include a Shirley Temple Cocktail for little girls and a Hopalong Cassidy Cocktail for boys.
     
28 January 1960, Hammond (IN) Times, “Wilson Observes” by Earl Wilson, pg. C4, col. 2:
Actor Lawrence Tierney rejoined AA, ordered a “Shirley Temple cocktail” (ginger ale) at Armando’s.
   
15 July 1962, Oakland (CA) Tribune, pg. EL10, col. 3:
Shirley Temple turned down a big money royalty deal to have a pinkish beverage named “The Shirley Temple Cocktail.” She doesn’t think the cocktail connotation is healthy for young fans.
 
23 April 1963, Oxnard (CA) Press-Courier, “Shirley Temple 35 today; child-star charm remains” by Vernon Scott, pg. 18, cols. 3-4:
Dressed in a chic red linen suit, Shirley, now the mother of three herself, went unrecognized in a restaurant in the CBS-TV studio. She smiled at a little boy dispatching a pink soft drink at a nearby table.
 
“He’s drinking a Shirley Temple cocktail,” Shirley smiled.
 
“Some years ago a company wanted to bottle a drink and call it a Shirley Temple cocktail. But I said no.”
 
15 February 1980, Chicago (IL) Daily Herald, “The Homeline” by Roberta Ritz Mathews, section 2, pg. 8, col. 1:
Dear Roberta: A while back, an item in your column described how to make a Shirley Temple cocktail using ginger ale and juice from maraschino cherries. I discovered recently that commercially made tropical punch (canned is best) with ginger ale added to taste makes a perfect Shirley Temple. Much less expensive, too.—Sue Mathis  
 
26 May 1985, Chicago (IL) Daily Herald, section 3, pg. 3, col. 5:
I remember that a Shirley Temple cocktail was a drink you could order for a child. It was made simply with ginger ale and red cherry juice and usually was garnished with a maraschino cherry. What is the Cary Grant cocktail that I hear is popular in New York?—Bobby K., Reading, Pa.
 
New York (NY) Times
THE LAW; Shirley Temple: Celebrity or Generic Term?
By KATHERINE BISHOP, Special to the New York Times
Published: Friday, October 28, 1988
For more than 50 years the sweet pink Shirley Temple ‘‘cocktail’’ of lemon-lime soda and grenadine syrup topped with a maraschino cherry has been served in restaurants as a nonalcoholic treat for children. It was invented in the 1930’s at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood and named in honor of the child star.
 
But recent efforts to sell bottled soft drinks using the name ‘‘Shirley Temple’’ have provoked a legal backlash from the real Shirley Temple, who aims to show the manufacturers that she no longer sails on the Good Ship Lollipop.
 
’‘I will fight it like a tigress,’’ Shirley Temple Black said about the new soft drink Shirley T Sparkling Soda. ‘‘All a celebrity has is their name.’‘
       
29 January 1998, Lake Park (Iowa) News, pg. 5, col. 5:
Some interesting trivia about Shirley: two drinks were named after her—Shirley Temple Cocktail and Dirty Shirley;...
   
The Wall Street Journal
HOW’S YOUR DRINK
APRIL 3, 2009, 10:43 P.M. ET
Why Do Mocktails Fall Flat?
By ERIC FELTEN
The only faux-cocktail so conceived that has survived into modern times is the grenadine-tinted ginger ale concoction, the Shirley Temple. But it survives only as a treat for the kiddies, not a drink that any self-respecting adult, no matter how abstemious, would think to order. In 1984 the maraschino cherry producers got together and held a contest to come up with a Shirley Temple replacement that adults could embrace. The winning entry was the Zinger—orange juice and cherry-jar syrup garnished, natch, with a cherry. It’s never been heard from since.