It was years before Ray Tomlinson rack up ‘ send ’ on story ’s first electronic mail , and decades ahead of Tim Berners - Lee ’s World all-inclusive connection dreams . Hell , the Numa Numa video recording was but a glinting beacon on the horizon , more than half a century into the future . Technologically speaking , time were lean . But an ingenious administrator constitute John Martin search at the modest advance of his day and figure chance where others get a line only novelty .
An inventor had just created the globe ’s first crying camera , which , through the illusion of ego - developing picture , could create a print in less than a minute after the shutter clicked ( no shaking necessary , despite what you hear from Outkast ) . The unexampled innovation was doubtlessly the hit of many a party , but Martin foresee a style to take it a step further , to apply the societal element of the new gizmo as a potent solution to a business problem he ’d been struggling with for nigh a decennium .
Eight years earlier , in 1939 , as the President of the United States of Heublein , Inc. , a pocket-size Connecticut - base food and beverage company , Martin had acquired the right to Smirnoff vodka . Problem was , Americans had n’t yet acquired a taste for vodka , and Smirnoff , which had just get on these shores , had yet to obtain a footing in the marketplace . By 1941 , he was ready to stick a bob in his vodka venture : aside from a slender spike in South Carolina , where an enterprising distributor was marketing the stuff as “ White Whiskey , ” Smirnoff sales were stagnant . Later that class , during one of his regular trips to Los Angeles to chew the fat the actress Jane Weeks — his future married woman — Martin got hit by the serendipity stick .
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Stopping off at the Cock’n Bull , a legendary Hollywood nightspot possess by his pal Jack Morgan , Martin listen to Morgan lament the nimiety of peppiness beer he had on his mitt . No sooner had the speech ‘ what a conjunction ’ left Martin ’s lips than Morgan ’s girl , Ozeline Schmidt—“a great big , beautiful , buxom woman , ” as Martin call up her — take the air into the bar .
It just so come about that Schmidt had latterly inherit her phratry ’s copper mine and could n’t find any buyers for their products , which included the cold - conducting copper color mark that would before long give the Moscow Mule its signature looking at . While the colorful denizens of the Cock’n Bull ( a group that include , at various time in the fabled joint ’s history , Somerset Maugham , Richard Burton , and Rod Stewart ) caroused around them , Martin , Morgan , and Schmidt seek the gross counterweight of spicy ginger , smooth vodka , and citrusy lime .
They eventually found their formula , of course , but that was just the commencement for the Moscow Mule . The cocktail would n’t run into full gallop among the drunkenness public until Martin became an former adopter of the insistent camera , taking the machine on the route to spread Moscow Mule febrility .
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The Heublein exec visited tearing yap and snap bartender with a Moscow Mule cop mug in one script and a bottle of Smirnoff in the other . He would snatch up two photos , leave one with the barman and taking the other to his next destination , where he would say , in effect , “ Check out what the competition is doing . You do n’t desire to be provide behind , do you ? ”
Indeed , no barkeeper — or , for that matter , toper — did want to be left behind . The photos — attention - grabbing novelties in and of themselves — would be circulated , along with feverish word - of - mouth about the novel savor new cocktail and its middle - grab vessel .
As a resultant , the Moscow Mule circulate like , yes , a computer virus — and sale of Smirnoff tripled by the end of the decade . Several other Smirnoff - advance vodka cocktails became popular in the Mule ’s wake , including theBloody Mary , theScrewdriver , the Bullshot ( vodka and bullion ) , and the Ice Pick ( vodka and iced tea ) .
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As Robert Furek , Martin ’s heir at Heublein ( which would become the Smirnoff Co. ) , toldThe New York Times , “ John Martin start new selling technique . He did n’t go by the record . ” With his instant - camera - powered campaign , Martin not only started a cocktail craze and singlehandedly popularized vodka in the U.S. , he also created a selling technique that was more than half a century forrader of its time .
“ He just did it , ” allege Furek . “ And it was fun to him . ”
SMIRNOFF No . 21 Vodka . Distilled From Grain . 40 % Alc / Vol . The Smirnoff Co. , Norwalk , CT .
