1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Faculty and Proctors But they could not save Killackey. Only his doughty spirit went on to France. He died on the way across. * * * * Killackey's successor, as High Priest of this Temple of Bacchus, or principal of this branch of the American School of Drinking, was Phil Kennedy, also of Gaelic origin, and proud of it. He had been Killackey's lieu– tenant, or aide, and had done most of the hiring for the Bar from its early days. The proudest day of Kennedy's life, his friends used to say, 'fas that on which he him– self composed for Ireland's most publicized poet of the time, and served with his own hands, a drink that made such a hit with thirsty literature that the poet would drink nothing else. William Butler Yeats had come over to New York with the Irish Players during one of the early years of the present century, and certain New York literati, eager to do him honor, gave him a luncheon in ' the Men's Cafe of the hotel, across the hall from the place where Kennedy presided. Phil had advance word and was thrilled. Naturally, cocktails were ordered, and Ken– nedy decided that no other.hands must J:ouch this offer– ing. The cocktails must be something different. Yeats must have heard the word "cocktail," Ph~I realized, but there were things about drink that most Irishmen who had never before seen New York did not know. The Clover Club Cocktail, not so long before imported from Philadelphia, was then regarded as the last word in ap– petizers. It had not yet crossed the Atlantic. So Kennedy with his own hands shook up a trayful of Clover Clubs and, brushing aside the waiters who sought to render [ 73]