Bottoms Up
52 Cock-Tail Spins for High Flyers
From the Recipes of Many Celebrities
1928
Published by The Buzza Company



A rare Prohibition Era cocktail recipe book
Available now on Lulu.com




Images are full size.   6 ½" x 9"


This rare Prohibition Era cocktail recipe book, die-cut in the shape of a cocktail shaker, was
published in the U.S. in 1928, at the height of the Prohibition Era, flaunting the ban on alcohol
with cocktail recipes by famous silent film stars, vaudeville performers and musicians, including
W. C. Fields, Fanny Brice, Florenz Ziegfield, Ted Lewis and George Gershwin.








Bottoms Up is notable for two reasons.  It was one of only a few cocktail books published in the U.S.
during Prohibition, and it's the earliest known example of a book of cocktail recipes of famous celebrities.

This is a natural pairing.  While most Americans found it difficult or impossible to obtain alcohol during
Prohibition, celebrities, especially in the entertainment business, thrived on the underground cocktail culture.







It's significant that "Tex" Guinan is included.  Mary Louise "Texas" Guinan made her silent film
debut in 1917 in The Wildcat, becoming America's first movie cowgirl, "The Queen of the West".

However Tex's importance in this cocktail book was her notorious reputation as the owner and
manager of a Prohibition Era speakeasy called the 300 Club at 151 W. 54th Street in New York City.

Her club was routinely raided by the police, but Tex always claimed that the patrons had brought
the liquor in with them.  The 300 Club was the gathering spot of New York's wealthy and famous,
including George Gershwin, Reggie Vanderbilt, Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, Irving Berlin, John Barrymore
and Rudolph Valentino.  Ruby Keeler and George Raft were discovered as dancers at Tex's 300 Club.






Each of the celebrity cocktail recipes concludes with a nostalgic "Do You Remember?" reminiscence
of the grand bars, hotels and casinos that had once flourished before Prohibition.








The book also contains pages on
● Antidotes and Pick-me-ups
● Helpful Hints for making cocktails
● Rules of the International Bar Flies
● The Amalgamated Order of Beer Shifters
● The Code of the Bar Flies





Today's tradition of American cocktails primarily developed during, and because of, Prohibition.  Cocktail
books before this era were usually trade publications intended for professional bartenders.  Then the 1920s
and early 30s saw the emergence of do-it-yourself cocktail books, mostly published in England, France,
Canada and Cuba, featuring the new explosion of cocktails that developed during Prohibition.  Very few
cocktail books were published in the U.S. at this time, since the ingredients weren't available, and
Bottoms Up is the rarest of them all.  So far, only two copies of this book are known to have survived.





The reprint edition


The reprint is reproduced full-sized.  Brief biographies of each celebrity accompany the recipe pages.





In addition, there is a short history of American cocktails,




and a chapter on dance during the Prohibition Era, both written by Richard Powers.




Here is a photo of two Bottoms Up celebrities, with George White coaching Ann Pennington in dancing the Black Bottom.







George Buzza

Bottoms Up is the earliest known example of a book of cocktail recipes paired with famous celebrities.

Another one came along five years later, in December 1933, during the last gasp of Prohibition.  George Buzza
published Hollywood Cocktails, with favorite recipes of Mae West, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Marlene Dietrich,
Will Rogers and Jean Harlow, among others.  Since he published it one month before Prohibition was repealed,
in November, he concluded the long subtitle of his book with "Whenever it Becomes Legal to Serve."


   




George Buzza published both Bottoms Up and Hollywood Cocktails.



George Earl Buzza Jr. began his career as an artist, drawing cartoons for the Chicago Tribune.
He was also a writer, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, and cocktail aficionado.  He founded the
Buzza Company in Minneapolis and built a factory with a distinctive tower, called Craftacres.



The Buzza Company specialized in designing and manufacturing greeting cards.
By 1927 it was one of the nation's largest greeting card companies, shipping
40 million cards a year, with annual sales of $2.5 million.

   

Buzza also published a variety of books on topics such as entertaining, etiquette, bridge, and childrens'
books.  And the odd 1928 cocktail book Bottoms Up, at a time that most of the ingredients were illegal.

In 1929, just before the stock market crash, Buzza sold his interest in the company and moved to
Hollywood, intending to retire.  Instead, the tireless entrepreneur formed a partnership with a
fellow Minneapolis business associate.  He became president of the Buzza-Cardozo Company,
a greeting card firm in Hollywood, which also published books on the side, including Hollywood
Cocktails, once again published during Prohibition.  George designed the book himself.



Considering his evident enthusiasm for cocktails, he probably designed Bottoms Up as well,
and was likely one of the "Two Knights" who wrote it.








The reprint of this book is available now on Lulu.com


Richard Powers home page