Post #690867 by Limbo Lizard on Wed, Aug 21, 2013 10:27 AM

In several places within this thread, there is discussion of a minor controversy regarding the Zombie recipe in Patrick Gavin Duffy's The Official Mixer's Manual, first published in 1934. (The book was commissioned by the publisher, and it appears they retained the copyright.) This is the recipe that appeared on page 89 of Berry's Grog Log, as "an anonymous 1934 attempt to reproduce" the Don the Beachcomber Zombie. (Berry actually found the recipe in an early-90s Santa Monica newspaper article, attributed to an unnamed 1934 source. Later, post-Grog Log, he discovered the article's "source" was clearly the Duffy book.)
The controversy arises from the question of how Duffy could include, in his 1934 book, a recipe for a cocktail that was supposedly only first invented in 1934. How could this drink, from the just-opened Hollywood hole-in-the-wall Don's Beachcomber, have already attained a reputation sufficient that it would be included in a bartender's book by a very traditional east-coast pre-Prohibition cocktail expert? Something seems rather fishy, as several have noticed. Here are some of the relevant posts:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3892&forum=10&vpost=43943
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3892&forum=10&vpost=209767
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3892&forum=10&vpost=209833
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=3892&forum=10&vpost=253845

In a recent TC Zombie thread, this same topic arose. It is also posed in the Webtender Wiki article on the Zombie. I believe I stumbled upon the answer,... or at least to the extent to show our assumptions were wrong. Duffy's book was reprinted many times, first in 1940, then 1948, and so on. I have the 1940 edition, and it includes the Zombie recipe. It lists copyright years of 1934 and 1940, each with a different publisher. Apparently, the new publisher acquired the rights from the original (I don't know if Duffy had any editorial involvement with this or later editions). I noticed the style of how the Zombie recipe is written up differs from the other recipes. Was it really ever in the 1934 book, or was it added in 1940? I finally found an online copy of the original 1934 edition, digitized by Google from a copy in the UC library. The 1940 edition appears to be printed with the same plates, same pagination. But look on page 209 - where 1940 has the Zombie recipe, 1934 has blank space! The Zombie recipe was NOT in Duffy's original 1934 version, after all. The Zombie was added in the empty space, beginning with the 1940 printing, and judging by the style, it was added by the publisher, not Duffy. So, the issue only arose, because everyone was reading later editions, but assuming they were exact reprints of the 1934 original. They almost were identical,... with the exception of this one recipe. "Duffy's 1934 Zombie" is a phantom,... created by an understandable but mistaken assumption.
:down: page 209, 1934 and 1940 versions :down:

"The rum's the thing..."

[ Edited by: Limbo Lizard 2013-08-22 13:01 ]

[ Edited by: Limbo Lizard 2013-08-23 06:59 ]