Joe Gilmore (born 19 May 1922) was one of the longest running Head Barmen at The Savoy Hotel's American Bar. Gilmore started as a trainee barman at The American Bar in 1940 and was appointed Head Barman in 1955, a position he held until he retired in 1976. Over his years as Head Barman, Gilmore invented numerous cocktails to mark special events and important guests, a longstanding tradition at the American Bar. Gilmore has invented cocktails in honor of a number of royalty, politicians and celebrities including The Prince of Wales, Prince William, The Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, The Prince Andrew, Sir Winston Churchill, and American Presidents Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon. He also invented cocktails to commemorate the first walk on the moon in 1969 by Neil Armstrong, and the American and Russian link-up in space in 1975. He was born in Belfast.
In addition to serving five generations of royals at private receptions and parties, Gilmore has also served Errol Flynn, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Grace Kelly, George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Hemingway, Noël Coward, Agatha Christie, Alice Faye, Ingrid Bergman, Julie Andrews, Laurence Olivier Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
Famous quotes containing the words joe and/or gilmore:
“While we were thus engaged in the twilight, we heard faintly, from far down the stream, what sounded like two strokes of a woodchopper’s axe, echoing dully through the grim solitude.... When we told Joe of this, he exclaimed, “By George, I’ll bet that was a moose! They make a noise like that.” These sounds affected us strangely, and by their very resemblance to a familiar one, where they probably had so different an origin, enhanced the impression of solitude and wildness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Tory camp is now in sight,
And there he cowers within his den;
He hears our shouts, he dreads the fight,
He fears, and flies from Marion’s men.”
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–1872)