National Bloody Mary Day

The origin of National Bloody Mary Day is perhaps as shrouded in mystery and intrigue as the history of the drink itself.

Even the name is quite enigmatic, with various scholars suggesting it was named after Queen Mary I of England, Hollywood star Mary Pickford, or even a waitress named Mary who worked at the Bucket of Blood bar in Chicago. All of these have been given as possible namesakes.

Obviously, the idea of it being named “bloody” has to do with the fact that it is largely made with tomato juice, taking on something like the color and appearance of blood.

No one is quite sure exactly how and where this drink was created. There are at least three different interesting versions of the story behind the creation and naming of the Bloody Mary.

Fernand ‘Pete’ Petiot, a native to the hospitality industry and a bartender who was originally from France, claimed to have invented the Bloody Mary in 1921 when he was working at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris.

This was a place that was popular with Ernest Hemingway, Rita Hayworth, Humphry Bogart and other famous American expatriates at the time, and it was owned by a former American jockey, Ted Sloan, for many years.

In this story, Petiot invented the drink and named it after Queen Mary Tudor of England who was infamous for her execution of followers of protestantism.

Veterinarian-turned-writer James Rollins, on the other hand, has claimed that the Bloody Mary was invented in the Hemingway Bar at The Ritz Paris. Rollins writes about this in his 2010 novel, Sigma Force 6.5: The Skeleton Key, in a section called “What’s True, What’s Not”.

Also, an ocean away, New York’s 21 Club claims that the Bloody Mary was first made there, though they do have two different versions of the story.

One is that it was invented in the 1930s by a bartender named Henry Zbikiewicz, and another attributes its invention to the comedian George Jessel, who frequented the 21 Club.

Jessel was known as the “Toastmaster General of the United States” and in his autobiography, The World I Live In!, he claims to have created the drink in 1927 (in Palm Beach, Florida).

In fact, one of the earliest printed references to the drink in the United States occurred in 1939 in a gossip column by Lucius Beebe called This New York, where he attributes the drink to George Jessel.

The fact that National Bloody Mary Day takes place on the first day of January is probably directly related to the fact that people have been out drinking and partying the night before, on New Years’ Eve.

This is a great opportunity to take the party from the night before and turn it into a New Years’ Day brunch, enjoying a toast to the start of something new.