1948 Shaking with Eddie by Eddie Clarke

Conference Delegates from the British Government — Stanley Baldwin, etc.—that voyage we had a series of events, even to a fire on board and a collision in fog with a tramp steamer in the St. Lawrence River. Other voyages we were also carrying film personalities—Leslie Howa r d on one occasion hid in my Cocktail Bar to dodge all his admirers in New Yo r k .

The Wo r l d ' s Cruise of 1932, we had amongst our passengers the great Bernard Shaw—not a patron of my Cocktail Bar, though.

Barbara Hutton met her first husband, Count Reventlow, on this ship. Mervyn Le Ro y , the film producer, came around the world on his honeymoon—I catered for his cocktail parties at each port, and in Ho l l ywo o d he kindly gave me a free pass over Wa r ne r Bros.' Studios, and put a huge Packard car at my disposal during the 3-day stay there.

My brother Al l an came out of the Navy during my service in this ship, and joined me in the noble art of cocktail shaking.

In 1934 I came ashore and went as Head Bartender at Berkeley Buttery until Ap r i l , 1936, when I went over to Dublin at the Roya l Hibernian Hotel until the end of the year. I then returned to London and took over as Head Bartender at the London Casino until New Ye a r ' s Eve , 1938. In January, 1939, I was engaged as Head Bartender at the Savoy Hotel, where I remained until being called into the Army at the end of 1940 as a gunner in the Roy a l Artillery. In February, 1946, I was released from H . M . Service, and within two weeks I was back with my old friend the shaker, in charge of the Cocktail Bar, Roya l Clarence, Exeter, until the end of September, when I left to take over at the A l b a n y on October 1st, 1946. My brother Al l an , recently released from the Roy a l Navy, was already engaged at the Club, and once again we became a team. A n d n ow—

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