The Bloody Mary's Original Name Was Somehow Even More Gruesome
Have you ever heard of that urban legend in which if you stand in front of a mirror and chant "Bloody Mary" three times, a spirit with that name is going to appear behind you? After getting a slight chill from the creepy story, you might be able to appreciate how good a name it is for the iconic blood-red cocktail. Bloody Marys are strong, bold, and in lieu of scaring the bejesus out of you — the pungent seasoning-packed vodka cocktail assaults your senses with heat instead. However, if you think that the name is plenty gruesome, the original name is going to ick you out even more: a Bucket of Blood.
The drink's story starts in 1920s Paris, where a French bartender named Fernand Petiot supposedly mixed up the very first version of what we now call the Bloody Mary. But forget the elaborate concoctions you see today loaded with a dozen ingredients – Petiot kept things simple: just vodka and tomato juice. When a patron saw the blood-red color, he was instantly reminded of a club in Chicago with a pretty evocative name, the Bucket of Blood (also written as the "Bloody Bucket" in some accounts).
It's only when the Bucket of Blood crossed the pond in the '30s that it gained its now-famous name (it went by "Red Snapper" for a time, though that name now refers to a gin-based version). The story goes that George Jessel, a talented comedian who regularly visited the 21 Club in New York, ordered a drink made from half tomato juice, half vodka — but he gave it a different name: the Bloody Mary. But why that particular name? That's where things get interesting.
Different woman named Mary are said to have inspired the name that stuck
The truth is, nobody knows for certain — and no, it's got nothing to do with the urban legend. While the Bloody Mary and its name origin remain a mystery, there are several compelling theories that have emerged over the decades.
Lots of sources attribute the name to Queen Mary I of England, who, due to her cruel reign, was given the nickname "Bloody Mary." But George Jessel, the person who's widely believed to have given the drink its name, has two different stories. In the first story, it's an homage to one of his friends named Mary Geraghty; in the second, the name came about when Mary Brown Warburton, a socialite he was drinking with, accidentally spilled the drink on her dress and she said, "Now, you can call me Bloody Mary, George!" via Bloody Drinks.
As for Petiot, the alleged original creator of the cocktail? In a BBC interview in 2011 with Harry's New York Bar in Paris (the very same one Petiot worked at in the 20s — yes, it's still running today), it's said that the name came about thanks to a patron who made an off-hand remark that it looked like his girlfriend whom he met in the Chicagoan Bucket of Blood cabaret club. Her name was Mary, and whether she's aware of it or not, she may have become the inspiration behind one of the most popular cocktail drinks ever.