When Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill) offers Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) a Gibson by stating, “Karen, you’re a Gibson girl.” during the famous birthday party sequence in the 1950 film “All About Eve”, he was simply describing “the cool, urban superiority of the Gibson” (Roger Angell, The New Yorker) over the taste of the suburban crowds of olive-chewers.

 Although the Gibson is a 100+ year-old drink pre-dating any film reference, it remains a classic alternative for the suave cosmopolitan, or those who would like to appear as such: from Roger (Cary Grant, “North by Northwest”), Frasier (“Frasier”, Ep: Dinner at Eight) and Philip Marlowe (“The Long Goodbye”) to Maxwell Smart (Don Adams, “Get Smart”, Ep: The Five-Forty-Eight) and Stan (“American Dad!”) with June Rosewood at her Hollywood mansion.

In recent years it also remains, with a number of other cocktails, a preferred order for some of the  “Mad Men” characters, see also “The ‘Mad Men’ Cocktail Guide” at http://goo.gl/Lyzf6m.

• 2 oz Gin
• ⅓ oz dry vermouth
• garnish with a silver-skin onion

Stir well in a shaker with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, then garnish and serve.