Mary Pickford (1930 Adaptation)
Rum and pineapple juice form the equal-part base of this 1930 Mary Pickford adaptation, with measured grenadine and a small maraschino-liqueur accent.
- Original yieldYield
- 1 cocktail1 cocktail
- PrepPrep time
- TotalTotal time
About 5 minutes with chilled glasses, prepared syrups and ice ready; advance preparation is additional.
Published Updated
Original recipe: 1 cocktail
The story behind the recipe
Pineapple and rum share the glass equally in a Mary Pickford. Grenadine gives the mixture a peach-pink tint, and a small measure of maraschino liqueur adds a cherry accent. It's a short, fruit-led cocktail.
The star behind the name
Mary Pickford was one of the leading actors of the silent-film era. She was also a founder of United Artists and a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy's collection of Pickford material places that familiar face alongside her work behind the scenes.
Her name appears over a cocktail in Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), page 103. The entry gives equal parts Bacardi rum and pineapple juice, a teaspoonful of grenadine and six drops of maraschino. Craddock supplies the ingredients without an account of how the drink acquired its name. The little formula is enough to explain why it's worth keeping: a generous fruit-and-rum base seasoned with two smaller additions.
A drink with a screen star's name suits a party menu, but the glass doesn't need props or a theatrical garnish. Here it's served plain, with the soft color of the shaken juice visible from rim to stem.
Read more about this recipe
Four ingredients, very different measures
The two larger pours are easy to remember. White rum keeps the fruit prominent, and pineapple juice gives the drink its body as well as sweetness. The mixture gets a little natural froth from shaking. It won't have the broad egg-white cap of a Clover Club, which is a different choice on the same party menu.
Buy unsweetened pineapple juice, rather than a pineapple-flavored drink or tropical blend. Those products can introduce added sugar and other fruit into a recipe already sweetened with grenadine. Stir or shake the juice container as directed on its label before measuring; settled juice can make successive pours less consistent.
Grenadine is a fruit syrup. Its color and sweetness vary between bottles, so a pale peach glass and a deeper pink one can both come from these quantities. A familiar bottle is helpful when you're making several servings and want them to taste alike.
Maraschino means the clear cherry liqueur, not the liquid from a jar of cocktail cherries. It brings its own concentrated flavor even in a small pour. Buying the liqueur is the one detail worth settling before putting this cocktail on a menu; substituting cherry-preserving syrup would change the drink.
A small measure you can actually make
The recipe uses 2.5 ml of maraschino, a deliberately larger accent than the book's six drops. A marked half-teaspoon from a set with a 5 ml teaspoon measures it conveniently. A full teaspoon would double the liqueur in this serving.
That small amount also makes the Mary Pickford easy to fit beside a stronger-flavored cocktail. In A Night at the Speakeasy, it offers pineapple where the other glasses offer mint, raspberry or a wine-topped whiskey sour. Choose by flavor, not by which glass looks most elaborate.
Have the juice chilled and the little measure ready. A small flared glass leaves room for the mixing dilution and a thin line of pineapple froth. With no cherry, fruit wedge or handful of garnish to arrange, the finished cocktail can go straight from the shaker to the person who ordered it.
Make it your wayOriginal: 1 serving · Makes 1 cocktail
Original recipe: 1 cocktail
Ingredients
For 1 cocktail. Quantities are shown as written.
Source measurement convention: Metric. Explicit unit definitions take precedence; unconfirmed measures must be checked before conversion.
Original quantities for 1 cocktail.
- White rum45 ml
- Unsweetened pineapple juice45 ml
- Grenadine5 ml
- Maraschino liqueur2.5 ml
Measurement notes
Measurement notes
Original ingredients
- 45 ml white rum
- 45 ml unsweetened pineapple juice
- 5 ml grenadine
- 2.5 ml maraschino liqueur
Equipment
Cocktail shaker
Jigger or measuring glass
Fine strainer
Small flared stemmed cocktail glass
Instructions
Measure rum and pineapple
Chill a small flared stemmed cocktail glass. Measure the white rum, pineapple juice, grenadine and maraschino liqueur into a shaker. For the 2.5 ml liqueur, use a marked half-teaspoon measure from a set with a 5 ml teaspoon; avoid measuring it by an assumed number of drops.
Shake with ice
Add ice cubes, close the shaker and shake firmly for 10 to 15 seconds until very cold.
Fine-strain and serve
Fine-strain into the chilled glass, leaving the mixing ice behind. Serve promptly without a garnish.
Estimated calories 140 kcal
Nutrition portion: whole recipe · Original yield: 1 cocktail
Source & assumptions
Ingredient-based estimate using CoFID 2021, USDA SR Legacy (2018), representative labels for Bacardi Superior (40% ABV), Liber & Co Real Grenadine. About 140 kcal per nutrition portion (whole recipe). Uses representative white rum at 40% ABV, real pomegranate grenadine and a representative high-strength sweet liqueur for the small maraschino measure. Actual ingredients and preparation affect the estimate.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Measure larger batches accurately, including the small liqueur amount, but shake only what your shaker comfortably holds. Divide among chilled glasses and serve promptly.
Original recipe notes
These notes describe the original recipe. Quantities mentioned here do not change when you adjust servings.
Adapted from Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), p. 103. We keep equal rum and pineapple portions, specify white rum and set the grenadine at 5 ml. The 2.5 ml maraschino is a practical, larger measure, not a conversion of six historical drops. The source gives no method or garnish line; shaking and fine-straining are supplied here.
Use maraschino liqueur, not cherry-preserving syrup. A marked half-teaspoon from a set with a 5 ml teaspoon gives the listed 2.5 ml; check its capacity. No serving ice or garnish is needed.
Read the scaling guide. Times, temperatures and equipment need their own consideration. Open the recipe tool to review and correct individual amounts.
Sources and attribution
Recipe details
- Recipe tradition
- Vintage
- Course or meal
- Drink
- Cuisine
- Other / International
- Source decade
- 1930s
- Cooking method
- No-cook
- Occasion
- Entertaining
- Browse category
- Drinks & Cocktails