Bilgray’s Tropico , formally known as Bilgray’s Tropic Bar, was one of the twin pillars of the freewheeling bar culture that gave Panama the reputation it carried in the 1930s and 1940s for raunchy, boozy fun. Located on the notorious Balboa Street, alias “Bottle Alley,” in Colon, Bilgray’s served the Caribbean end of the (dry) Canal Zone, while Mamie Kelley’s Ritz, in Panama City, took care of the Pacific end. Max Bilgray (1885–1958), an Austrian who in the years before Prohibition kept saloons first in the Chicago suburbs and then in Wyoming, set up in Panama in 1921 after seeing a fellow speakeasy proprietor get five years in jail for doing just what he was doing. There, as Bilgray’s enjoyed a large and enthusiastic military clientele, which included such future eminences as General Dwight David Eisenhower and Admiral William F. Halsey, both junior officers at the time. Actors and other celebrities were also frequently found there, such as William Powell, Errol Flynn, and Groucho Marx. In 1930 American radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson visited the bar, hiding behind a false name. She was nonetheless recognized, whereupon Bilgray dedicated a drink to her, the Hallelujah Cocktail, and had the recipe printed on postcards. A threatened legal action never materialized. Bilgray, an unassuming, soft-spoken man (though, as reporter Ernie Pyle noted, “immensely profane”), sold the bar in 1955 after suffering a stroke. It limped along until 1974 but never regained the reputation it enjoyed under its charismatic founder. Karrer, Bob. “Have a Drink with Max,” Isthmian Collectors’ Club Journal, 2008, 41–47. Pyle, Ernie. “Touring with Pyle.” El Paso Herald-Post, January 20, 1940, 6. By: Jeff Berry and David Wondrich
Bilgray’s Hallelujah Cocktail, as memorialized on a postcard, 1930. Source: Wondrich Collection.
