Drunk On Collecting: Swizzle Sticks & Strange Ads
05.31.07 By Deanna Dahlsad
Once upon a time, America was a cocktail party throwing nation.
I know because the wonderful world of movies and television tells me so. The vintage films and retro TV shows have not been digitally remastered to remove the images of highballs — at least not yet. Nor have they removed the tinkling of ice which underscored the lounge music, which underscored the conversation.
In this fairy tale land of long ago, there were specific locations — hot spots, if you will — in which one could not only drink (and smoke) but eat a bloody steak and enjoy live entertainment.
On your vintage maps of Forever-Ago America, these spots would be seen as Supper Clubs.
Supper Clubs were fabulous places where the ladies dressed-up and smelled of pretty perfume. The men dressed grand too. As did the children who were lucky enough to attend such an evening meal.
Don’t be shocked, long-ago and far-away in this land, children were allowed in bars, taverns and supper clubs as long as their parents or other adult family members were in attendance.
I know, I was lucky enough to be there.
One of the greatest thrills of going to a supper club was being allowed to play dress-up. More than playing dress-up, really, you were playing grown-up — and the supper club helped.
They gave you kiddie cocktails, in a highball glass, on the rocks, complete with a nifty garnish and a take home souvenir. It might be a paper parasol, or a plastic sword with fruit skewered on it, or, and these were my personal favorites, plastic monkeys which hung off the side of the glass.
Adults got souvenirs too. They were called swizzle sticks. Some were just plastic sticks, others had fancy decorations. All were stamped with either the name of the Supper Club or a maker of the booze used in the drink.
Unlike the boring sani-straws you get in a bar today, swizzle sticks were nifty. You sure could tell how fancy a place was by their swizzle sticks. Plain plastic with just the liquor company was for the lower-rent places, a step up were the fancy offerings from the liquor company, and a step up from those were the plain sticks with the joint’s name on them. But the holy grail of swizzle sticks were the fancy sticks, one of a kind really, with the club’s own unique design and logo.
Swizzle sticks were such a cool thing, folks even had them in their homes — and not the recycled ones taken home as souvenirs, but folks went out and bought plastic and even glass sets of swizzle sticks so that they could properly serve their guests. Containers of swizzle sticks were on every good host and hostess’ bar, along with a proper cocktail shaker, and ice bucket and proper ice serving tongs. I know, because I’ve seen them. (Don’t worry mom and dad, I won’t tell them about your parties!)
Because we didn’t know much about safety, we left the Supper Clubs and parties and drove home — not only drove drunk but sans seatbelts too.
In fact, we transported drunk or at least with a drink in hand as a general rule. We flew drunk, boated drunk, and before those wonders we rode trains and horse-drawn carriages drunk. 
And when we traveled, we traveled with companies (and stayed at fine hotels and motels) which had swizzle sticks of their own.
Alcohol was ‘everywhere.’
Even if you weren’t around to visit the Supper Clubs, attend the swank parties, or fly the not-so-sober-skies of yesteryear, you can still see evidence of Alcohol America in vintage advertising.
Forget all about medicines and snakeoils with alcohol in them, just look at the ads recommending liquor for the consumer who — well, who lived.
We romanced women, wooed African Americans, and we even preached that drinking alcohol was good for baby.
(But hey, why shouldn’t beer be good for baby if smoking is?)
Back then, we may have been utterly ignorant regarding alcohol consumption, but it sure makes for fabulous collecting.
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Article Tags: alcohol, dress up, Supper Clubs, swizzle stick================
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June 6th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Before American doctors started cooking up and pushing baby formula for profit, and telling mothers that formula was better for their infants than their own milk, mothers used to nurse their babies. And, in those days, one of the things that the doctors discovered was that when nursing mothers drank beer (in moderation) it increased the quantity and the quality of their breast milk. Ignorance has obviously not quite yet been eradicated.
June 7th, 2007 at 3:59 am
[...] Once upon a time, drinking was not a vice but a social phenomenon. We gathered in groups and celebrated. Maybe too much. But our culture of taverns, supper clubs, home bars, and travel drinking items has left a wonderful, fanciful and somewhat demented legacy of objects for collectors sober enough to enjoy them. [...]
June 14th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Did it really increase the quality? Any liquid and calories will increase quanitity and quality, but beer still seems rather suspicious to me…
July 20th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
My home is full of junk unique things.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:58 am
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