Harvey Wallbanger is one of those simple cocktails but delicious and easy to remember.

The story says that the cocktail was created in 1952 by bartender Donato “Duke” Antone at his Blackwatch Bar in Los Angeles, California. He named the cocktail after a local surfer and regular guest called Tom Harvey.

However, the cocktail and drinks writer for the New York Times, Robert Simonson says that “no sane person ever believed that story”.

Simonson that investigated the origins of the Hartford Courant (newspaper), tells us that George Bednar who was the Marketing Director of McKesson Imports Co. during the late 1960s, approached Antone to be the marketing consultant and create a cocktail to market Galliano.

A rather pained-looking, sandal-wearing surfer mascot named Harvey Wallbanger appeared. His line: “Harvey Wallbanger is the name and I can be made!”

Seems suspect that good old Harvey was the invention of the Galliano marketing department.

Galliano liquor at the time gained a lot of popularity together with the well-known cocktail Golden Cadillac created at Poor Red’s Bar in El Dorado, California that also ran an advertising campaign from 1964 to 1967.

If you replace the vodka-based version with tequila, you have a Freddy Fudpucker cocktail also invented by the man itself, Donato “Duke” Antone.