French 75: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

The French 75 is a drink built from a joke about artillery: gin or brandy under a Champagne charge, named for the Canon de 75 that defined French firepower in the Great War. Its lineage runs through London gin fizzes, Jazz Age Paris, and the expatriate bar culture of Harry's New York Bar, then forward into the cocktail revival that put it back on menus. This mix maps the drink's ancestors, its rivals on the same bar list, and its heirs.

The Kynda mix for French 75

• Key Influence · The Tom Collins by Jerry Thomas (1876). The French 75 is structurally a Collins with Champagne swapped for soda. Jerry Thomas's 1876 edition of his Bar-Tender's Guide printed the Tom Collins template — spirit, lemon, sugar, lengthened with sparkling water — that became the nineteenth century's default long drink. Every later '75' formula, gin or brandy, inherits that sour-plus-bubbles skeleton, with the wine's acidity and yeast doing the work soda once did.
• Influencia Obscura · Here's How! by Judge Jr. (1927). The humorist writing as 'Judge Jr.' published one of the earliest printed recipes under the name French '75' in this slim Prohibition-era joke book — a gag gift of drink formulas aimed at American readers who could not legally use them. The version is gin-based and brusque, and its appearance in a comic pamphlet rather than a professional manual explains why the drink's documented paper trail is so eccentric and late.
• Local Roots · Harry's New York Bar, Paris by Tod Sloan (1911). The American jockey Tod Sloan shipped a Manhattan saloon interior to rue Daunou and opened the bar that MacElhone would later run and own. It became the Paris clubhouse for expatriate writers, pilots and newspapermen through both wars, and the room where the 75's name and legend were fixed. The Bloody Mary and Sidecar claims cluster here too: the geography of the drink is one street address in the second arrondissement.
• Beyond the Medium · Canon de 75 modèle 1897 by Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (1897). The drink's name honours a machine: the French army's quick-firing 75mm field gun, whose hydro-pneumatic recoil system let it fire far faster than rivals and made it the symbol of French firepower in 1914–18. MacElhone's joke was that the cocktail hit with comparable force. It is a rare case of military engineering naming a recipe, and it dates the drink firmly to the trench generation rather than the Jazz Age.
• Peer · The Sidecar by Pat MacGarry (1922). Cognac, lemon and orange liqueur — the other great Paris-claimed cocktail of the same moment, disputed between Harry's New York Bar and the Buck's Club barman Pat MacGarry, to whom Robert Vermeire credited it in print in 1922. It shares the French 75's brandy-and-citrus spine minus the wine, and the two drinks circulated on the same expatriate bar lists through the interwar years.
• Key Collaborator · The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock (1930). Craddock's Savoy compendium printed the French 75 in the gin-based, Champagne-topped form that became canonical, giving the drink the institutional authority MacElhone's slimmer pamphlets could not. An American barman who crossed to London when Prohibition closed his trade, Craddock belonged to the same transatlantic bartending network, and his page is the document from which most modern versions of the recipe are ultimately copied.
• Legacy · The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff (2002). DeGroff, the bartender most responsible for the modern cocktail revival, rebuilt menus around neglected pre-Prohibition and interwar recipes and championed the French 75 among them as a sparkling-wine aperitif worth taking seriously. His book's historical framing and insistence on fresh citrus restored the drink from catering-hall sweetness to the sharp, dry thing MacElhone's and Craddock's books describe.

What influenced French 75

• Here's How! by Judge Jr. (1927). Here's How! (Judge Jr.) — ghost for French 75 “The recipe took its now-classic form and "French 75" name in Here’s How, by Judge Jr.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Casablanca by Michael Curtiz (1942). Casablanca (Michael Curtiz) — culture for French 75 (themoviedb.org)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925). The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) — culture for French 75 (openlibrary.org)
• The Tom Collins by Jerry Thomas (1876). The Tom Collins (Jerry Thomas) — titan for French 75
• The Gin Fizz by William Schmidt (1891). The Gin Fizz (William Schmidt) — titan for French 75
• Canon de 75 modèle 1897 by Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (1897). Canon de 75 modèle 1897 (Atelier de Construction de Puteaux) — culture for French 75

Peers and kindred spirits

• Harry MacElhone. Vermeire’s book credits MacElhone with the drink. (also via Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails) “Robert Vermeire's Cocktails: How to Mix Them , which credits the drink to MacElhone.” (Wikipedia)
• The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock (1930). The Savoy Cocktail Book (Harry Craddock) — collaborator for French 75 “This recipe was republished with the name "French 75" in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which helped popularize the drink.” (Wikipedia)
• Tom Collins. The article explicitly compares the two cocktail recipes. “The recipe of the French 75 is very similar to one of the most popular cocktails, the Tom Collins , with champagne replacing carbonated water .” (Wikipedia)
• Cocktails and How to Mix Them by Robert Vermeire (1922). Cocktails and How to Mix Them (Robert Vermeire) — collaborator for French 75 “The drink was first recorded as the "75" in Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, 1922 edition, by Harry MacElhone, and in the same year in Robert Vermeire's Cocktails: How to Mix Them, which credits the drink to MacElhone.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1964). A Moveable Feast (Ernest Hemingway) — geography for French 75 (openlibrary.org)
• The Artistry of Mixing Drinks by Frank Meier (1936). The Artistry of Mixing Drinks (Frank Meier) — collaborator for French 75 (openlibrary.org)
• Harry's New York Bar, Paris by Tod Sloan (1911). Harry's New York Bar, Paris (Tod Sloan) — geography for French 75
• The Ritz Bar, Paris by Frank Meier (1936). The Ritz Bar, Paris (Frank Meier) — geography for French 75
• The Bee's Knees by Frank Meier (1936). The Bee's Knees (Frank Meier) — peer for French 75
• Buck's Fizz by Malachy McGarry (1921). Buck's Fizz (Malachy McGarry) — peer for French 75
• The Sidecar by Pat MacGarry (1922). The Sidecar (Pat MacGarry) — peer for French 75

Who French 75 influenced

• Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails by Harry MacElhone (1919). The book contains an early recorded recipe for the drink. “The drink was first recorded as the "75" in Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails , 1922 edition, by Harry MacElhone” (Wikipedia)
• Casablanca by Warner Brothers. The cocktail appears in the film. “It appears in the movie Casablanca (1942) and is referenced twice in the John Wayne films A Man Betrayed (1941) and Jet Pilot (1957).” (Wikipedia)
• Cold Fusion. A character drinks the cocktail in this episode of Archer. “In " Cold Fusion ," a 2020 episode of the animated spy comedy Archer , Malory Archer drinks a French 75.” (Wikipedia)
• French 125. The French 125 is described as a cognac substitution for the French 75. “A "French 125" replaces the gin with cognac. [ 7 ] A "French 95" replaces the gin with bourbon.” (Wikipedia)
• Cocktails: How to Mix Them. Vermeire’s book records the drink and attributes it to MacElhone. “and in the same year in Robert Vermeire's Cocktails: How to Mix Them , which credits the drink to MacElhone.” (Wikipedia)
• The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury (1948). The book gives a cognac-based version of the cocktail. “Some later cocktail books use cognac instead of gin, such as The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury .” (Wikipedia)
• Jet Pilot. The film references the cocktail. “It appears in the movie Casablanca (1942) and is referenced twice in the John Wayne films A Man Betrayed (1941) and Jet Pilot (1957).” (Wikipedia)
• A Man Betrayed. The film references the cocktail. “It appears in the movie Casablanca (1942) and is referenced twice in the John Wayne films A Man Betrayed (1941) and Jet Pilot (1957).” (Wikipedia)
• French 95. The French 95 is described as a bourbon substitution for the French 75. “A "French 125" replaces the gin with cognac. [ 7 ] A "French 95" replaces the gin with bourbon.” (Wikipedia)
• Mr. Selfridge. The cocktail appears in the television series. “In 2016, it appears in the ITV series Mr. Selfridge , which is set in London in the 1910s and 1920s.” (Wikipedia)
• Here’s How. The book published the drink under its French 75 name with its now-classic recipe. “The recipe took its now-classic form and "French 75" name in Here’s How , by Judge Jr. (1927), consisting of gin, sugar, lemon juice, and champagne.” (Wikipedia)
• The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff (2002). The Craft of the Cocktail (Dale DeGroff) — legacy for French 75 (openlibrary.org)
• Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails by David Kaplan (2014). Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails (David Kaplan) — legacy for French 75