The Twentieth Century cocktail appears in William J. Tarling’s 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book, where he credits the recipe to someone named C.A. Tuck.

According to Teg Haigh in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, he notes to be a post-Prohibition creation and is named after the express train travelled on the New York Central Railroad from 1902 to 1967.

 The train travelled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along the railroad’s “Water Level Route”. Advertised as “The Most Famous Train in the World”, it would complete the run from New York to Chicago in 20 hours, four hours less than previous trains.