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OldWaldorf Bar Days
ants quit Greece and took himself and his ideas about
debts and debtors to Ireland, is not clear. Report says
that, despite the endeavors oflearned scholars, there are
a few ancient inscriptions in Ireland that have not yet
been translated. But certain letters of the Gaelic alpha–
bet bear little resemblance to the Roman. To an Eng–
lishman they might seem Greek. Well, Johnnie Solon's
family came from Ireland, and not directly, at least,
from Greece, and this chronicler will delve no farther
back into his history than to mention that when the
Waldorf's brass-rail Bar opened, in
1897,
Johnnie was
playing the modest rele of cashier in a St. Louis hotel,
with no intention of becoming a barman.
But after a war, a soldier begins to think of a job.
And when Johnnie was discharged, he made his way to
New York. The Waldorf was the biggest hotel; he had
had some hotel training; he went there. And the only
job open was one slinging drinks. Johnnie had never
poured a drink or mixed one, but he felt he had it in
him to learn. And soon it developed that he had a real
flair for symphonic composition. His concoctions so
pleased customers that they sang the author's praises
wherever they werlt, and when he was on duty his corner
of the bar counter was always crowded.
His first appearance at the Waldorf Bar almost coin–
cided with that of another historic, but tragic event, for
it was only a few days before fire destroyed the old
Windsor f!.otel, half a
m~le
or so up Fifth Avenue. That
was on St. Patrick's Day,
1899,
which as every good
Irishman knows-and some others have reason to know
- was March
I
7.