When the author depicted on the cover of a book he is trying to sell shows himself with the body and feet of a rooster, he signals a flamboyant, perhaps unique, personality. That would be William T. Boothby, sometime politician, saloonkeeper, and famed San Francisco bartender whose “drink books” continue to be available.
Boothby was born in San Francisco in November 1862 to “Forty Niner” parents who had come from the East to California during the Gold Rush of the mid- 1800s. Although they did not find gold, his father from Maine earned a living as a baker and saloon keeper. Upon ending his education in his early teens, William tried several occupations and, as one author put it, “…proved himself at a young age to have a great deal of that useful quality, hustle.”
After toiling at tailoring, clerking, and attendant for a streetcar company, Boothby’s skills at singing and dancing landed him a job with Dr. McConkey’s Vigor of Life Minstrel Company. Traveling throughout the West, this troupe peddled a patent remedy later identified as a useless “alcoholic bracer” by medical authorities. A natural show-off, William, now in his early 20s, shown here, thrived in the medicine show, billing himself as “The Great Boothby — King of Terpsichore.” His signature stunt was dancing a jig on stage with a glass of water on his head.
Apparently tiring of the traveling life by the late 1880s, Boothby turned to the profession that would mark the rest of his life. He became a bartender, serving out drinks at a variety of establishments in the San Francisco area. An early job was at Byron Springs Hotel, a fancy resort about fifteen miles east of downtown. The prestigious hotel and spa shown above, the Byron was popular place for Frisco residents to take the waters, including the fiery waters Boothby dished out. In time he moved on to the Silver Palace saloon in the heart of San Francisco.
By 1891 Boothby was tending bar at the swanky San Rafael Hotel in the nearby town of the same name. Self-described as the “Presiding Deity” of the Rafael barroom, he decided, wisely as it turned out, to publish a drink recipe book, aiming it at “all students of mixology.” Calling himself “Cocktail Boothby” and the “Standard Authority,” he advertised with the line: “Bar-Keepers – You're Not In It If You Don't Read Cocktail Boothby's 'American Bartender’”. An early edition is shown below.
In truth, at this time Boothby did not have a significant amount of bartending experience or know many drink recipes so he included other material. It included his “Ten Commandments” for bartenders, that included: III. Always appear pleasant and obliging under all circumstances. “IV. Avoid conversation of a religious or political nature. VI. Sell all the liquor you can, but use as little as possible yourself.” He also tossed in several pieces of his own verse, including:
Just say to all smart booze clerks who question your sense,
And hold all your wisdom at naught:
You’ve been forced to turn knowledge away every night,
And you’ve standing room only for thought.
Boothby’s first edition also contained advice on how to rescue punky beer and tricks for artificially aging beer, using, believe it or not, pickled cucumbers and Seville oranges. His drink recipes ranged from an Absinthe Bracer using the green liqueur and a raw egg, to the Zsa Zsa Cocktail, concocted of Dubonnet sweet wine, dry sherry and orange bitters.
His drinks book brought Boothby the kind of recognition he craved. When offered a larger salary at the San Francisco’s Parker House, he jumped there. The management gave him star billing, painting a life-size picture of him in his “cock’s tail” mode painted on the outside wall of the bar. As his celebrity rose Boothby opened his own saloon and restaurant on Powell Street.
Riding on his personal popularity and as an authoritative author of a mixed drink book, Boothby decided to run for the California legislature. Mark Twain might have understood what was at work: “The cheapest way to become an influential man and be looked on by the community at large was to stand behind a bar, wear a diamond cluster pin and sell whiskey. I am not sure but that the saloonkeeper had a shade higher rank than any other member of society. His opinion had weight.”
In that era Frisco’s saloon owners had been organized into a distinct political block. With their backing, William stood unopposed as the Republican candidate for the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, the 43rd Assembly District. In a later edition of his book he recognized this help with the dedication: "To the liquor dealers of San Francisco who unanimously assisted in my election to the Legislature by an unprecedented majority.” Serving only one term, he was recognized particularly for championing legislation that might positively affect San Francisco saloons and drinking public. Thereafter he liked to be referred to as “The Honorable Willliam Boothby,”
The San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, devastating much of the city, destroyed the printing plates for Boothby’s book. That meant that the 1908 third edition had to be written largely anew, and could incorporate all that Boothby had learned in the meantime. It was chockfull of new cocktails and for the first time he gave named credit to other bartenders for many of the recipes. Under the name “Cocktail” Boothby, he touted himself as “Premier Mixologist.”
Moving once again, William began working at the Pied Piper Bar of the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco, shown above. It was there that he is said by some (opinions differ) to have invented the “Boothby Cocktail,” to my mind a glorified Manhattan. Here is the recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
• 2 oz Rye whiskey
• 1 oz Sweet vermouth
• 2 dashes Orange bitters
• 2 drops Angostura Bitters
• 1 oz Brut Champagne, chilled
• Garnish: Maraschino cherry
PREPARATION:
Add all the ingredients except the champagne to a mixing glass and fill with cracked ice. Stir well and strain into a chilled flat bowl champagne glass. Float some champagne on the top and garnish with a maraschino cherry.
Of Boothby’s personal life, little has been recorded. The 1880 and 1900 Federal censuses showed him living with his mother, Sarah. There is no record of his ever having married. He was a member of the Olympic Club of San Francisco, the oldest athletic club in the U.S. and a gathering place for the elite of the city. As he aged, he donned a mustache, as shown here on a trade card.
Boothby continued as Frisco’s premier bartender until National Prohibition shut down all production and sales of alcohol. Even then he found it hard to stop, continuing to serve drinks “under the counter” at the Orpheum Theatre Annex to his old customers. He was arrested there in 1922 for violating the Volstead Act and paid a fine. Members of his loyal following stepped in to find him jobs, including one as a steward at the St. Francis Hotel. In his mid-60s Boothby was diagnosed with cancer and died of the disease in August 1930, at the age of 68. His funeral was thronged with mourners, including an estimated 100 bartenders from across America, many of them grateful for mentions in Boothby’s books. I have been unable to trace the bartender’s place of burial.
Although William did not live to see Repeal in 1934, his drinks books would survive and provide the foundation for the thousands that have followed. Shown here is a post-Prohibition copy of his “World Drinks and How to to Mix Them.” Although this flamboyant “mixologist,” a man so careful of his image, likely would blanche at being referred to as “Cocktail Bill” he would be proud that his bartending legacy has traveled down the years.
Note: Although this post has been gathered from a variety of sources, two proved to be most important in telling Boothby’s story: A Difford Guide online biography by Theodora Sutcliffe, no date, and a story in The Daily Beast by David Wondrich, entitled “San Francisco’s Deep Cocktail Roots,” dated April 9, 2018.
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