Where the Cocktail Party Came From
It has surprisingly feminist origins.
Atlas Obscura
BY LAURA CARLSON JULY 11, 2017
Photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, holding a cigarette and a beer stein, in her Self Portrait (as “New Woman”), 1896. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/LC-DIG-PPMSCA-38981
GREAT COCKTAILS GO HAND IN hand with great stories. There are legends about the creation of the Sazerac, the Ramos Gin Fizz, even the Manhattan. But where’s the celebrated origin story of that iconic American pre-dinner drinking hour, the cocktail party? Sources disagree.
Alec Waugh (brother of the novelist Evelyn) insisted in a 1970 Esquire essay that he invented the idea of drinks-before-dinner in the 1920s. Others point to a Tacoma Times article from April 1917 crediting a St. Louis socialite, Mrs. Clara Bell Walsh, as the first to hold a party devoted exclusively to mixed drinks….