A Mary Pickford is a Prohibition Era cocktail created in the 1920s by either Eddie Woelke or Fred Kaufman.

Eddie Woelke moved to Cuba during Prohibition and worked at Havana’s Jockey Club. He is also related to other cocktails such as El Presidente but none of them comes to be confirmed.

Mary Pickford cocktail is often credited to the bar at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, but this hotel was built in 1930, years after the cocktail had already become popular.

The most credible claim comes from the legendary Fred Kaufman who was a bartender at the Hotel Sevilla. This historic hotel in Havana opened its doors in 1908 and would be renamed to Sevilla-Biltmore Hotel in 1919.

The story is recounted in Basil Woons’s 1928 When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba, saying “The Mary Pickford, invented during a visit to Havana of the screen favourite by Fred Kaufman, is two-thirds pineapple juice and one-third Bacardi, with a dash of Grenadine”.

As you may notice, the cocktail is named after Mary Pickford who got known in her prime as a film actress and producer with a stunning 50 years career in Hollywood.