The Strange Family Wines pop-up tasting room in the Malibu Lumber Yard was the scene for a fun, unique event on a rainy evening last Wednesday. Author Mark Bailey signed his book “Of All the Gin Joints: Stumbling through Hollywood History” while guests sipped classic French 75 champagne cocktails.
Bailey then read three of his favorite chapters aloud to the gathering—the ones on Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Lee Marvin. After the group demanded an encore, he read about Richard Harris.
Among the stories was one where Bogart and his drinking buddy took two 20-pound stuffed pandas into a restaurant and requested a table for four… read the book to see how it played out.
Bogart’s last words were: “I never should have switched from Scotch to martinis.”
Then there was the night a drunken Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra shot up the desert town of Indio with two Smith & Wessons.
And the time Lee Marvin showed up at his house after an all-nighter without his keys, and rang the doorbell to get in. He was greeted by a strange woman. When he asked what she was doing in his house, she said, ‘You sold it to me three months ago.”
“Of All the Gin Joints” is actually local resident and documentary filmmaker Bailey’s second humorous book on the subject of drinking. His first book about famous people under the influence, “Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers” (2006), focused on famous writers. It was such a hit that his publishers asked for an encore.
The creators of both books come with quite a pedigree—illustrator Hemingway is the grandson of Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway. Author Bailey’s wife Rory Kennedy is the youngest child of Robert F. Kennedy.
Some years after the first book, after Bailey had moved from New York to Malibu, he and Hemingway finally decided their encore endeavor would focus on Hollywood, and be filled with the exploits of dozens of partying Hollywood stars from the beginning of the film era in 1895 up to 1979. “Of All the Gin Joints” includes not only funny stories, but fun facts about Hollywood history, the backgrounds of the stars, the hot spots of the day and the recipes of the stars’ favorite drinks—along with lots of great quotes.
A quote from the book by actor/writer/comedian W.C. Fields: “I like to keep a bottle of whiskey handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.”
“It turned out to be a big project—it took four years of work in between films,” Bailey said in an interview. “There are over 80 illustrations.”
“But it’s really fun,” he continued. “It’s about people—actors, directors, places like the Polo Lounge, heroes and films… There’s a lot of movie and film history wrapped around the [anecdotes].”
Falling into the category of “It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it,” Bailey hired professional bartenders to mix up all of the cocktail recipes given in the book so he could taste them.
“My favorite is the Brown Derby,” he said, which is a mixture of bourbon, fresh grapefruit juice and honey syrup.
In an interview given by Bailey and Hemingway several years ago to Doug Miles Media about the book, Bailey said, “We want to give people an opportunity to look back and celebrate a Hollywood that has disappeared, or is rapidly disappearing, and to look at stars that were larger than life at their legendary watering holes; and to try the cocktails that the stars loved to drink.”
Bailey pointed out that some of the stories in the book could have ruined a star’s career if they had come out in the press back in the day. “You didn’t have TMZ and the paparazzi in those days,” he said. “And in the studio system, the studios were invested in protecting their stars’ reputations from a puritanical country if something bad happened on a night out; like a fistfight, a car accident or a ‘reefer’ party.”
As for the fanciful and clever illustrations, Hemingway said, “It was fun to research the celebrities and do their caricatures. I made them all look like you’re viewing them through the bottom of a whiskey glass.”
“Of All the Gin Joints” is available wherever books are sold.
