Since whiskey is strongly entrenched in American history, it comes as no surprise that Hollywood movies and whiskey cocktails often find themselves crossing paths.
Today we are exploring the love affair between movies and cocktails with a Scottish ode to the Manhattan Cocktail. To put it simply The Rob Roy Cocktail is basically a Manhattan made with Scotch Whisky.
A Columbia Pictures movie that stars Rita Hayworth, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Thomas Mitchell, and John Qualen. The movie was written, directed, and produced by Ben Hecht
The movie revolves around one Broadway night that brings the four main characters together. Charles Engle’s (John Qualen) had embezzled $3,000 from the business for his wife and is being threatened with exposure. Therefore, he decides to commit suicide and has his suicide note ready in his pocket. As the evening progresses, Bill O’Brien (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), a conman, mistakenly thinks that Engle is a rich man and enlists the help of Nina Barona (Rita Hayworth), an aspiring nightclub singer, to lure Engle into a poker game that is run by some gangsters. The idea is to fleece Engle of cash so that O’Brien can get his usual cut. Engle’s suicide note is accidentally discovered by the drunk down-on-his-luck playwright Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell) who hatches a risky plan to help Engle recover the $3,000 at the poker game.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Rita Hayworth are seen drinking Rob Roy cocktails at the Pigeon Club during the course of the movie.
A romantic comedy starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken and directed by Hugh Wilson.
The movie is about an eccentric scientist Dr. Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken) who in 1962 believes that a nuclear war is imminent. So, he builds s secret nuclear fallout shelter. When an F-86 Sabre that is passing over the city loses control and crashes into his house, Calvin believes that the Cuban missile crisis has resulted in war and takes his pregnant wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) into the shelter where he activates the time lock that closes the shelter for 35 years. Helen gives birth to a boy and they name their son Adam.
When the shelter opens in 1997, Calvin mistakes the run-down neighbourhood where his home once stood as a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with mutants. He decides that his family must remain underground. However, since their supplies are running low, a naïve Adam must go out into the world to procure more in order to sustain the bunker life. Out in the world, Adam meets Eve Rustikoff (Alicia Silverstone) and her gay housemate and best friend Troy (Dave Foley).
Throughout the movie Adam’s parents are seen drinking Rob Roy cocktails. In one of the scenes set in the Club 40’s, Adam is seen drinking a Rob Roy and when Eve asks about his drink, Adam replies “This is a Rob Roy. This is a very popular drink I’m told”
A Penny Marshall movie by Columbia Pictures starring Robert DeNiro & Robin Williams. The movie is about Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) and his patient Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro). Dr. Sayer uses a new drug that is meant for patients with Parkinson’s Disease on a group of catatonic patients who had suffered from encephalitis. The group shows a remarkable improvement with the new medicine.
During an outing, Rose, who is one of the patients coming around from coma, orders “A Rob Roy on the rocks” when she realises that drinking is legal again.
The Rob Roy has made a cameo appearance in a number of television series:
Andrew Usher is said to be the father of blended Scotch whisky. In 1848 he created a partnership with his two youngest sons, Andrew and John and in the 1850s their firm began blending scotch whisky commercially in Edinburgh. Soon the Usher’s whisky brand started making the rounds in America.
The most popular story of the Rob Roy cocktail’s origin is that it was invented in 1894 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Manhattan, New York City. It is said that it was named after a popular operetta called Rob Roy which was all about a Scottish folk hero of the same name. The play was directed by Reginald DeKoven at the Herald Square Theatre which was just around the corner from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel
It seems that a cocktail called the Rob Roy did exist before this. The New York Sun published an article called the “American Fancy Drinks” on 22nd August 1873. In it a New York bartender called E.F Barry was credited for the Rob Roy Cocktail. The article does not mention the main spirit in the drink that contains “a little gum syrup, two dashes of Angostura, a few drops of oychette cordial”. The spirit base would probably have been an American Whiskey, Brandy of Genever Gin. Not what the present cocktail looks like!
However, it was not until a small article was published in The San Francisco Call on 3rd November 1895 that we got the Rob Roy that we know today. It talks about “a new cocktail called cocktail called the ‘Rob Roy’ is a Manhattan, made with Scotch instead of rye whisky; it is excellent.”
The New York Herald, November 21, 1897 article, that most people believed to be the first reference to the cocktail, states that “The Fifth Avenue Hotel has two new drinks this winter” and goes on to describe “the Rob Roy is made of Scotch Whiskey. It is completed by vermouth and orange bitters.” One would argue that it just says that the hotel has 2 new drinks and not that it was created there!
The New York Sun had a column called Along the Wine Trail by G. Selmer Fougner. On 24th March 1941 there was a letter from one of the readers who asks about the Hungarian Tokay wine which was popular in the 1890s and starts reminiscing about the Hotel Hungaria, New York where his brother bartended for many years. He goes on to say that his brother “claims to have originated the Rob Roy Cocktail about 1895 when he got a $10 check from the Police Gazette for the recipe, as they used to offer prizes in those days.
He says that Usher’s salesman used to come into Duke’s House regularly to sell his product. One day a bunch of men were in Duke’s House drinking Manhattan cocktails at a table when Usher’s man came in and was invited to drink with the boys. He said: “It’s not ethical for me to drink anything that does not contain Usher’s Scotch whiskey.” So the boys told my brother to make a round of cocktails and put in Usher’s instead of American whisky. They praised the new taste, then the boys said we must give it a name and someone, evidently up on Scotch history, suggested ‘Rob Roy.’ I would like to know if there is a Rob Roy cocktail listed in any of the books on the subject.”
The Rob Roy appears in John Applegreen’s Barkeeper’s Guide or How to mix Drinks, 1899. The recipe in the book calls for Scotch Whisky, Italian Vermouth, Orange Bitters, and lemon peel.
However, the Rob Roy in James C. Maloney’s 20th Century Guide for mixing Fancy Drinks,1900 is slightly different as it calls for Scotch Whisky, French Vermouth, Peychaud’s Bitters, Orange Bitters, Syrup, and Lemon Juice.
