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Hi Simon,
A couple of fast things.
Just to confirm the source, the article citing the bar in The Bronx is from the NY Times on December 21st, 1921 (not Miami News, plucked off of the wire a few days later). As for the Philly connection, I've always felt that Mr. Sormani took his hometown cocktail with him down to Philly and laid claim to a popular cocktail. All in all, I tend to side with you and lean toward Curley O'Connor as the creator and Johnny Solan as the modifier, adding more juice and gin to the augmented Martini variation. Mr. O'Connor created more than a few that made the rotation in his day so I think it a safe bet that this was one as well.
Lastly, you might want to add the 'Maurice' to the alternates - a standard Bronx with a few dashes of Absinthe. One of my favorites and one that we offered on occasion at the hotel. Cheers!

It’s Pittsburgh, PA (with an “h” at the end). Oh!—The cocktail is quite nice but perhaps a little soft to be named after a rough-and-tumble borough of NYC like the Bronx ;-)

I have previously been underwhelmed with this using fresh orange or the blood orange versions. For grins and giggles tried it using a Seville orange cordial I concocted and found it to be preferable - more bracing and herbal which is to my preference. Moreover the extra sugar gives it some smoothness and body as well.

A dry, not overly sweet cocktail. I would have to agree with C N in that it was actually rather bland (and it could very well be that my Vermouths are reaching their time limit). Will have to remake with "fresher" Vermouths to see if it makes a difference.

This didn't quite do it for me. I made it exactly per the recipe, except I was inexplicably out of Bombay London Dry (normally a staple in my bar), so I subbed Hendrick's. I found this drink to be rather bland.

Oh my. For the first one I used Conniption Kinship butterfly pea flower gin - it could not resemble swamp water more than if it was actually from a swamp!! Second try was with Botanist - much better. I’m not sure how I feel about OJ in cocktails, though. Still under consideration.

Subtle & beautiful cocktail.

A bit underwhelming. Predominant taste is the vermouth and not much else.

Took me a second try to appreciate this drink. Not sure what went wrong the first time, perhaps I got the measurements wrong. I think this drink is neat for the balance of the vermouths and orange juice which play nice together, and a bit of gin peppery-ness pokes up from underneath. Feels a bit heavy, in thickness. The orange makes me want to lighten it up with a dash of soda or something (though that might very well ruin it. Not my favourite, but I'm glad I gave it an extra shot.

I love the way these ingredients work together, but this is too concentrated for my taste. The addition of tonic water, however, transforms it into a wonderful G&T+.

I think this is the best use of vermouth I've ever tasted. Blew me away.

As many, found this an interesting, complex cocktail but found the dry vermouth a bit too forward (maybe because mine is cheap:), prefered with larger dash of bitters, used Roku gin which worked well.

Really enjoyed this. I found it a bit bitter at first, but as the drink had a chance to breathe, it became very smooth and mellow. Great before dinner.

I've been disliking most shaken cocktails, even the classics. The ones with 2 to 1 spirits/citric juice ratios usually, they become overly sweet and the tartness hides the spirit for me. But this one tasted nice. I want to try stirring one to see if it is any better for me.

I tried this with Dolin dry, Martini sweet, gin from a small-batch distiller in my neighbourhood, and Dillon's orange bitters. I have to say it is much tastier than Simon's description had led me to expect. I find that each of the flavours remains just subtle enough to blend nicely and the overall impression is a gentle fruitiness gracing a drink that remains pleasantly dry and serious. I don't expect it to join my regular rotation, but if I make it again, I won't regret it.

I love this cocktail - on a tour of all the New York boroughs at the moment, via this website. I also go for Tanqueray as my gin of choice.

The orange juice and the bitter perfectly balance the dryness of the gin and the vermouth, I used the Tangueray 10 and the Dolin Sweet Rosso vermouth, I really enjoyed it.