Forbidden Cocktails

Libations Inspired by the World of Pre-Code Hollywood

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Friends,

Without further ado, it is time for the cover reveal for Forbidden Cocktails (May 7).

I am so lucky that my books have been graced with some of the best covers in the business. Booze and Vinyl, Bar Menu, The New Cocktail Hour, and Gotham City Cocktails, are just a few of the examples that come to mind. Add to the list Forbidden Cocktails. When they showed me this cover, I was awestruck. Book twelve is a showstopper. And not just on the outside; TCM let me into the archives for all the film stills and ad posters you could ever want in a Hollywood book. It’s drop dead gorgeous.

I am thrilled how Forbidden Cocktails turned out. It has been a treat working with Turner Classic Movies again (see Movie Night Menus), and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude for this project. Pre-code Hollywood film is one of the most interesting and culturally important archives on Earth — a time when sound technology overlapped with writerly scripts during the cultural upheaval of the Great Depression. While working with the material, I was filled with a near-constant glee but also an awesome sense of responsibility.

A number of things are going to set this book apart from others - aside from the fact that it’s a Pre-Code Hollywood cocktail book. Unlike many drinks books that pair recipes with a period or genre, these recipes are almost all my originals creations.

Why? Because we know what the Prohibition-era cocktails were, and we have millions of books including them and about them. No one needs another book rehashing the classics. So when a film in Forbidden Cocktails does not specifically call out a drink, I brought together period ingredients in such a way that there is a hook to the film — just like I have with albums in the Booze & Vinyl series, or with The Big Lebowski, or Gotham City Cocktails, or any of the other of my books with original recipes. I am not just pairing Scofflaws and Twelve Mile Limits to these films — cocktails that are wonderful, sure, but you’ve seen before a million times. Get ready for some fun, interesting, and delicious libations. Get ready for some sleuthing as I try to determine what was in the actors’ glasses.

I cannot tell you the umpteen hours of research reading books and watching movies and testing drinks that went into the making of Forbidden Cocktails. It was a passion project akin to The New Cocktail Hour, which took two years just in conception. But there is little choice when you need to honor material like this. It became my obsession.

The Divorcee (1930), the film that opens the book, was the proverbial scratch of the needle across all cinema history with its sympathetic portrayal of a sexual woman faced with patriarchal hypocrisy. It heralded a new era of women’s stories in film — and movies afterwards went on to tell the stories of the fallen and forgotten, of the urban underclass. These are films with themes of poverty, equality, sexuality, and race while brimming with scenes of prostitution, murder, drinking, drug use, and suicide. We see America unvarnished, and the viewer can be forgiven for gasping at scenes for their shocking modernity. In fact, when the Code was enforced in 1934, Americans wouldn’t see films like these again until Hitchcock blew the industry open with Psycho in 1960 (the Code was not abandoned until 1968).

I will be sharing a lot more about this incredible time in cinema in the months ahead. That includes showing you some of my period cocktail-ware collection on social media around the time of the book launch. If you’ve never seen a deco shaker that is also a music box, if you’ve never seen a chrome set of the kind that always seems to hover around Joan Crawford, or if you’ve never seen a teapot with a secret interior used to hide liquor during Prohibition, you’ll want to tune in.

I leave you now with a little tipple and a deep bow (gloves and hat in hand) of thanks to all the many Pre-Code Hollywood fans who, with their passion for these films, have made this book possible and publishable. I consider this era the one with the best writers, the best directors, the most stylish sets, the most gorgeous dresses, the most drinks(!), the most dancing, the most sparkling wit, and of course the greatest actors of any age. My sincere hope is that Forbidden Cocktails makes Pre-Code more accessible and enjoyable to more people.

See more from the publisher and

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Balanced Account (The Divorcee, 1930)

Before the “dry” version took the world by storm in the mid-twentieth century, martinis boasted more vermouth. Equal parts martinis have come back into vogue and are a perfect way to balance the account in one’s glass. Consider this as an equal parts martini with the inclusion of a Parisian interlude (Jerry looks for Ted three times in the city). It is also an ideal cocktail for movie night because it scales up easily for a group and can be batched in advance.

1 ounce London Dry gin

1 ounce dry vermouth

1 ounce Lillet blanc

2 dashes orange bitters

Lemon peel, for garnish

Stir gin, vermouth, Lillet, and bitters with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel.

Excerpted from Forbidden Cocktails: Libations Inspired by the World of Pre-Code Hollywood. Available from Hachette. André Darlington. Copyright © 2024.

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