Only 50 Or So Years To Go

Someone shoot me if I'm still slinging drinks at this guy's age.

New York's Oldest Bartender Still Mixing Martinis At 90

NEW YORK (AFP) - Retirement is the last thing on Hoy Wong's mind. The New York bartender, who turned 90, plans to carry on mixing martinis just as he has done for the past six decades.

Believed to be the city's oldest working barman, Hong Kong-born Wong shows few signs of wear and tear, despite his four score years and 10, and talks energetically in punchy phrases with a marked accent.

He still pours with a steady hand, just as he did for Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and the Duke of Windsor.

Wong fled Hong Kong in 1940, the year before it fell to Japanese forces, and moved to San Francisco where he joined the US Air Force and learnt English. Demobilized in 1946 after serving in India and China, he moved to New York and started serving cocktails two years later.

It was while working in Freeman Chum, considered one of the city's first chichi Chinese restaurants, that he served most of his celebrity clients.

Marilyn Monroe, he remembers, would come to the restaurant for a liquid lunch. "She would have a Beefeater Martini. She was very nice."

Judy Garland, he recalls, was also fond of a tipple: "She was lovely. She liked to drink. She liked it a lot."

Joe Di Maggio would come every Saturday night and sit in a corner. "He would drink Johnny Red and soda, sit for four, five hours. He didn't want to be bothered."

John Lennon and Henry Kissinger would both come to the Algonquin Hotel, his employer for the past 27 years, and shared a taste for Scotch, he adds. He has a clear nostalgia for the New York of times past.

"It was cheaper. The salaries were also lower. I earned 45 dollars a month when I started. Working six and half days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. A cocktail cost one dollar and a shot of Scotch 75 cents," he reminisces. "Conditions have improved. Now I make 23 dollars an hour."

Wong still works five days a week, spending his entire eight-hour shift on his feet.
His advice for a long life comes down to common sense. "I don't plan to retire. I love my job. I love to meet people. President Bush needs money, he needs income taxes, so I will help."