Antone, Donato “Duke” (Dominic Donald Paolantonio; 1917–1992), was a postwar American bartender and mixologist-for-hire who for many years ran the Bartending School of Mixology in his home town of Hartford, Connecticut. His true claim to fame, however, is as the most likely candidate for creating the basis of the Harvey Wallbanger, one of the most popular drinks of the twentieth century. Antone may have first concocted the simple highball (vodka, orange juice, and a float of Galliano) in the late 1940s or early 1950s at the Black Watch cocktail lounge on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, which he either owned or worked at. He originally called it the Duke Screwdriver, since it is, of course, just a twist on the classic Screwdriver. Antone later did work for both Galliano and Smirnoff in support of the drink. See Smirnoff.
Antone’s claims about his early career—that he won national mixology championships in the late 1940s; that he founded his school in 1949; that he created several famous drinks (among them the Rusty Nail, the Golden Cadillac, the Freddy Fudpucker, and the Kamikaze)—are cast in doubt by the fact that in 1955 he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for running a heroin ring while tending bar in Hartford. It further must be conceded that he was far from a mixological wizard. His provable liquid inventions bordered on the ham-fisted, typically involving sweet liqueurs and cream. (His Italian Fascination, for example, contained only Galliano, Kahlua, triple sec, and sweet cream.) But in the 1960s he did promote bartending and mixology as worthy pursuits at a time when few in the United States did. He is also significant as an early exemplar of the kind of hand-in-hand partnership between bartenders and brands that, for better or worse, has become commonplace in the twenty-first century.
See also Galliano; Harvey Wallbanger; and Screwdriver.
“4 Dope Peddlers Get Terms of 5, 6 Years.” Bridgeport (CT) Post, January 11, 1955, 18.
Simonson, Robert. “Banging My Head against a Wall.” Lucky Peach 12 (August 2014), 96–99.
Tucker, Jean. “School of Pourmanship.” Hartford Courant, December 11, 1966, B1.
By: Robert Simonson