Hollywood has done much to glamorize drinking cocktails. Or has the cocktail done much to glamorize Hollywood? I guess it depends on if your snifter is half full or half empty.

Highballs, martinis, whiskey shots, champagne cocktails, brandy¦the good life was always better with a cocktail, even if it made you a drunk, a brute, or down and out, somehow cocktails on film have always been coveted and desirable.

Cocktails had such eye-catching accessories the martini shaker, the ice bucket glowing of bling, sturdy glasses, neon-studded bars and cocktail lounges worthy of brilliant set decoration artistry. Cocktails were part of daily lives just like brushing your teeth.

Here’s a recipe for the venerable whiskey sour

Whiskey Sour Seven Year Itch, 1955

• 1 ½ oz Knob Creek Bourbon
• 1 ½ oz fresh lemon juice
• ¾ oz sugar syrup
• Angostura Bitters
• stemmed cherry

PREPARATION:

1. Shake well.
2. Strain into a chilled sour glass.
3. Garnish with bitters and cherry.