The How and When
[Chicago]: Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco, 1937. First Edition. Black and white illustrations, including period advertising. Hardcover. Octavo. 203 pages. Bound in glossy black paper over boards with gold cloth spine, gold endpapers, black and red titling and rules to spine, and black, red, and gold foil Marco logo laid onto upper board. Remnant of bookplate on front pastedown, slight browning to fore edge of first and last leaf. A few rubs to extremities. Hinges sound, interior clean. Overall very good to near fine.
A striking post-Repeal cocktail manual produced by prominent Chicago spirits firm, Marco’s Liquors. Issued just four years after Prohibition’s end, it offers recipes, wine pairings, canapé suggestions, and blank “Cellar Record” pages for inventory. With much period advertising and visual charm, it captures the exuberance of legal drinking’s return.
Published in a city where Al Capone controlled the Prohibition liquor trade with bullets and bootleggers, this volume reflects Chicago’s shift from speakeasy shadows to showroom sparkle, capturing the commercial and cultural revival of American mixology in the 1930s.
Includes 1,000 cocktail recipes.
Ref. NOLING p. 168 (for second (1940) and third (1945) edition).
Item #1961
Price: $300