Johnny Solon's Bronx creation story

Our Bronx history refers the following testimony published in Albert Stevens Crockett's 1935 The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book as "Solon's own story of the Creation - of the Bronx."

We had a cocktail in those days called the Duplex, which had a pretty fair demand. One day, I was making one for a customer when in came Traverson, head waiter of the Empire Room - the main dining room in the original Waldorf. A Duplex was composed of equal parts of French [dry] and Italian [sweet] Vermouth, shaken up with squeezed orange peel, or two dashes of Orange Bitters. Traverson said, 'Why don't you get up a new cocktail? I have a customer who says you can't do it.'

'Can't I?' I replied.

'Well', I finished the Duplex I was making, and a thought came to me. I poured into a mixing glass the equivalent of two jiggers of Gordon Gin. Then I filled the jigger with orange juice, so that it made one-third of orange and two-thirds of gin. Then into the mixture I put a dash of each Italian and French Vermouth, shaking the thing up. I didn't taste it myself, but I poured it into a cocktail glass and handed it to Traverson and said: 'You are a pretty good judge. (He was.) See what you think of that.' Traverson tasted it. Then he swallowed it whole.

'By God!' he said, you've really got something new! That will make a big hit. Make me another and I will take it back to that customer in the dining room. Bet you'll sell a lot of them. Have you got plenty of oranges? If you haven't, you had better stock up, because I'm going to sell a lot of those cocktails during lunch.'

The demand for Bronx cocktails started that day. Pretty soon we were using a whole case of oranges a day. And then several cases.

The name? No, it wasn't really named directly after the borough or the river so-called. I had been at the Bronx Zoo a day or so before, and saw, of course, a lot of beasts I had never known. Customers used to tell me of the strange animals they saw after a lot of mixed drinks. So when Traverson said to me, as he started to take the drink in to the customer, 'What'll I tell him is the name of this drink?' I thought of those animals, and said: 'Oh, you can tell him it is a 'Bronx'.

The above testimony appears after four different recipes for a Bronx:

Bronx
One-fourth Italian Vermouth
One-fourth French Vermouth
One-half Gordon Gin
Piece of Orange Peel

Bronx No.2
Two jiggers Gin
One jigger French Vermouth
One-half jigger Orange Juice

Bronx (Waldorf)
Two-thirds Gin
One-third Orange Juice
Two slices fresh Pineapple in glass

Bronx (Original)
One-third Orange Juice
Two-thirds Gin
Dash of French Vermouth
Dash of Italian Vermouth

A few pages later Crockett also gives the recipe for the Duplex referred to above:

Duplex
Two dashes Orange Bitters, or two squeezes of Orange Peel
One-half Italian Vermouth
One-half French Vermouth