History
The exact origin of the Pink Lady is not known for sure. Occasionally its invention is attributed to the interior architect and prominent society figure Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950), but the recipe associated with her nevertheless clearly differs from the common recipes for the Pink Lady. The name of the cocktail itself is sometimes said to be taken from the 1911 Broadway musical by Ivan Caryll of the same name. During the prohibition era (1920-1933) the cocktail was already known. During this time it was a popular drink at the Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans, where it was offered under the name Pink Shimmy as well. Its recipe was due to Armond Schroeder an assistant manager of club. The popularity of the Pink Lady might partially be explained by the often bad quality of pure Gin during the prohibition era. Due to that there was a need to add additional flavours to compensate for the Gin's bad taste.
Latest in the 1930s the Pink Lady started to acquire the image of a typical "female" or "girly" drink. This was due to its name and its sweet creamy flavour usually associated with a woman's taste in publication like Esquire's Handbook for Hosts (1949). It is said of the Hollywood star and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, that she used to drink a Pink Lady before a meal. Subsequently the cocktail fell out of favour with male cocktail critics, who were put off by its alleged "female" nature. The writer and bartender Jack Townsend speculated in his 1951 The Bartender's Book that very non-threatening appearance of the Pink Lady may have appealed to women who did not have much experience with alcohol. At one point the Pink Lady ended up on Esquire's list of the ten worst cocktails.
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