For some, “Happy Hour” conjurs images of Madison Avenue advertisingexecutives slurping space-age atomic cocktails in the late 1950s and early1960s. Others associate “Happy Hour” withspring break bikini parties in exotic locations like Daytona Beach, Florida, the Caribbean orMexico.  

Both associations are appropriate, since the origins ofthe phrase, “happy hour,” are connected with the space age, atomic cocktails,bikinis, and exotic locations in Florida, the Carribbean, and Mexico, in surprisingand unexpected ways; the Mexican Revolution, atomic weapons and intercontinentalballistic missiles all played a role.

Many sources credit an article from the Saturday Evening Post in 1959 forintroducing the concept of “happy hour” into our broader pop-culture in theUnited States; but the phrase goes back evenfurther. Barry Popik’sonline etymology dictionary,Big Apple, lists several examples ofcivilian use of the phrase “happy hour” in California in the early 1950s,mostly from cities with or near large naval bases (Long Beach and Hayward (nearAlameda)). Popik places the origin of“happy hour” within the United States Navy in World War I. 

Although Popik correctly credits the United States Navy as the originof the phrase, the use of the phrase pre-dates the assassination ofArchduke Ferdinand by several months, and pre-dates the United States’involvement in World War I by several years.  

[(See my Happy Hour Update for evidence of President Taft's possible association with Happy Hour.)]

Wounded Marine from the Arkansas

On April 22, 1914, the UnitedStates’ Navy’s Atlantic Fleet steamed into the harbor at Veracruz Mexico inresponse to the Tampico Affair. Mexicowas, at the time, in the midst of an ongoing revolution. On April 9, 1914, some Mexican soldiers encountered several American sailors who were loading legally purchased fuel onto aboat at Tampico Mexico. The USand Mexico were not at war, but due to an innocent misunderstanding exacerbated, perhaps,by language difficulties, the Mexicans arrested the sailors.    

Laying Mines in Veracruz Harbor

Although the troops were quicklyreleased, President Wilson ordered the occupation of Veracruz harbor inresponse to a perceived, arcane diplomatic insult. The occupation would last for sixmonths.  

Gunfire during the early days ofthe occupation resulted in the death of about twenty American sailors andMarines and about one-hundred-fifty Mexican soldiers, many of them students atMexico’s Naval Academy. 

Despite the violent start to thecampaign, the aftermath was relatively calm. Within a few short weeks, warcorrespondents looking for a story - any story - filed stories reporting on the more mundane aspects of thedaily life of sailors and Marines in the war zone:

The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois)May 8, 1914.

The Happy Hour held on April 17,1914, while enroute to Mexico, included:

The Washington Times (DC) May 1,1914.

Feminineless Tango

The Arkansas had a band, whichsometimes played ragtime, and an orchestra, and the sailors danced a “femininelesstango.” 

Once in port, andafter the fighting had subsided, the “happy hour” entertainments also included dancinggirls recruited from a local bar. Thedancing girls, accompanied by local musicians, were blocked from leaving thestage forced to repeat the same few songs and dances until rescued by ship’sofficers.The Sun (New York) May 19, 1914. I guess it had been a long cruise. The“Happy Hours” reportedly contributed to particularly high morale onboard theArkansas, and the organized athletic events that were part of “Happy Hour”enabled the Arkansas to hold “nearly all the athletic records of the fleet.”The Day Book, May 8, 1914.

All of the early “Happy Hour”reports focus specifically on entertainments and athletic event; omitting any mention of a connection to alcohol.  Although the Navy has a long tradition of alcoholuse (In 1794, Congress established a daily ration for sailors of “one half-pint distilled spirits,” “or in lieu thereof,one quart of beer”), times had changed.  In 1899, the Navy made it illegal to sell or issueof “any malt or alcoholic liquor to . . . enlisted men.”  It seems unlikely then that alcohol would have been a part of the "happy hours" on board, particularly when the ship was at sea.  

In May of 1914, however, officers could still legallydrink Alcohol on board naval vessels; although that would soon come to end. On June 1, 1914,the Secretary of the Navy issued General Order 99 prohibiting the use orintroduction of alcohol on any ship or station; the order was effective as ofJuly 1, 1914.  

When in Veracruz, however, the crew would also have had access to alcohol; they did, after all, recruit the dancing girls from a local bar.  Perhaps they were permitted to bring the alcohol on board - the rules only forbade the "sale" or "issue" of alcohol; not its consumption.  And their treatment of the dancing girls was not particular sober.  It makes one wonder whether General Order 99 was a response to the mayhem at a USS Arkansas "Happy Hour," or just another notch in the belt of the prohibitionists, who would succeed in banning alcohol throughout the United States within six years.

The officer responsible fororganizing “Happy Hour” on the Arkansas, and quite possibly the originator of “Happy Hour,” wasLieutenantJonas H. Ingram.  Although it is impossible to say with anycertainty that Ingram was personally responsible for developing “HappyHour," his background, character and experience were perfectly suited for it.

Ingram was a fierce competitor, a leader andan innovator.  He was a football starat the Naval Academy, which was thena national powerhouse. He was Navy football’s head coach during the1915 and 1916 seasons, and served as Navy’s athletic director in the late 1920s. He was commissioner of the All AmericanFootball Conference, the original home of the San Francisco 49ers, ClevelandBrowns and Baltimore Colts, for two of its three years of existence (1947through 1948).  He was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Clearly he was a manfamiliar with how to motivate a crew and one who would be comfortable organizing athletic events and otherentertainments.

Regardless of who was responsiblefor initiating and naming “Happy Hour,” the fact that it happened on board theArkansas put it in a prominent position, from which it could spread throughout the fleet. TheUSS Arkansas (BB33) served as flagship toAdmiral Charles Badger, Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, during the Tampico Affair.  Admiral Badger reportedly enjoyed the Arkansas' “Happy Hours”from a front row seat.  As Commander in Chief of the entire Atlantic Fleet, he was in a positionto order or encourage the use of “Happy Hour” on other ships and other commandsto boost morale throughout the fleet.  

Sketch of "Happy Hour";Colliers, December 27, 1913

The Arkansas had also served as flagship toAdmiral Cameron Winslow, commander of the first division of the Atlantic Fleet, who sailed with the Arkansas on a show-the-flag tour of the Mediterranean in 1913.  He later succeeded Admiral Badger as Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet.  An article inColliers magazine several months prior to the Tampico Affair (December 27, 1913) also reported favorably on "happy hours" onboard the Arkansas. Lieutenant Ingram, who served with both Admiral Wilson and Admiral Badger on the Arkansas, was also in a position to influence thousands of youngofficers during his two-year tenure as the head coach at the NavalAcademy.

[(See my Happy Hour Update for additional evidence of even earlier use of Happy Hour on the Arkansas)]

The concept of “Happy Hour” did,in fact, spread throughout the fleet, as indicated by several sources datingthe phrase to World War I. Acontemporary description of “Happy Hour” at a small Navy shore command, at theend of World War I (the Radio School located on the campus of HarvardUniversity), may be typical: 

Frank Hunter Potter,The Naval Reserve (Henry Holt andCompany, 1919). Soldiers and sailorsreturning home, or perhaps even Harvard students who were exposed to the happyhours, introduced the phrase into the general population.

In a usage which may or may nothave been influenced by the naval origins, an excursion boat, dubbed the "Happy Hour" launch, plied a lakein Central Park, New York City in 1919: 

 

New York Tribune, August 10,1919.

The "Happy Hour" launch can be seen entering from the left, behind the rowboats.

It seems certain that the phrase,“Happy Hour,” as used on the USS Arkansas and as extended throughout the fleetand the military by the end of World War II, is the ultimate source of thephrase that found its way into the Saturday Evening Post in 1959. It is less certain, however, that the phrase, itself,was coined on the Arkansas, or borrowed from earlier uses.

In 1914, the words “happy” and “hour,” and the phrase “happy hour” were not new. The phrase had long been used in a nostalgic sense, often appearing inthe phrases, “the happy hours of childhood,” or “many a happy hour we spenttogether.” The phrase was also used in entertainment-relatedcontexts. The Happy Hour PublishingCompany of New York City, for example, published a line of scripts andtheater-related books as early as 1872. Inaddition, starting in about 1900, a number of social clubs throughout thecountry adopted the name, “Happy Hours Club,” or some variation thereof; manyof those clubs organized various entertainments from time to time. Between 1909 to 1914, there were several“Happy Hour” theaters, mostly located in the far west (El Paso, Texas, MojaveCounty, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada and Murray Utah). It may have been inevitable that someonewould designate the time for entertainment as “Happy Hour.”

There are also at least two reported, pre-1914 examples of the phrase “Happy Hour,” used todesignate a period of entertainment. InJanuary of 1905, for example, the Minneapolis Journal organized a “Happy Hour” for theirnewsboys, featuring lectures, sing-alongs, dramatic readings, songs andinstrumental performances:

The Minneapolis Journal, January16, 1905. 

In 1913, an advertisement forperformances at a theater located in another Upper-Midwestern city read:

Bismarck Daily Tribune (NorthDakota) October 3, 1913.

Although “Happy Hour,” as a namefor a scheduled period of entertainment may not have been completely original tothe Arkansas, the initial military use of “happy hour” on the Arkansas (and itscontinued use and expansion in Navy and military circles) seems likely to have been the sourceof the term, which ultimately took root in the civilian world in the early1950s, before its lift-off in 1959.

The connection between bikinisand atomic bombs is well-known. Frenchengineer Louis Reard introduced the modern bikini onJuly 5, 1946, a mere four days after the United States Navy’s atomic weaponstest, Test Able, part ofOperation Crossroads,at Bikini Atoll on July 1, 1946. Theconnection atomic bombs to the origin of “Happy Hour,” however, is more obscure.

Operation Crossroads involved twoatomic bomb blasts. The purpose of thetests was, in part, to test the destructiveness of the bombs on ships atsea. Test Able, the first test, demonstratedthe destructiveness of an above-water blast and a second test, Test Baker,conducted about three weeks later, on July 25, 1946, evaluated thedestructiveness from an underwater blast. Both tests involved an array of nearly one-hundred ships at varyingdistances from the blasts. Ships werearranged at distances ranging from directly below or above the blast to morethan a mile away from the center of the blast.

In Test Able, the bomb “Gilda”exploded 520 feet above the water and resulted in the sinking of fiveships. For Test Baker, the bomb wassuspended 90 feet below the landing craft, LSM-60. The explosion vaporized the landing craft andsank eight other vessels, including the next-closest ship (170 yards), the USSArkansas, the home of the original “Happy Hour.” 

 

A fitting end, perhaps; the USSArkansas, home of the original “Happy Hour,” was stirred into the first, actualatomic cocktail. A photograph from TestBaker famously shows what appears to be the USS Arkansas lifted up, nearlyvertical, in the water column from the blast. Later analysis of the blast suggests that the dark form in thephotograph is actually a water “shadow” of the Arkansas, a space where waterdid not rise in the column because it was blocked by the Arkansas which wasstill horizontal. 

“The most dramatic spectacle ofour time, with the possible exception of the explosion of a hydrogen bomb, isthe sight of a long-range missle blasting off its launching pad at CapeCanaveral.” So begins the article fromtheSaturday Evening Post (April 25,1959) credited with introducing the phrase “happy hour” into pop-culture. 

The article,The Men Who Chase Missiles, describesthe living and working conditions of the Air Force and civilian contractors who manned remote, down-range island outposts tomonitor missile launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida (which, coincidentally, lies just down the road from spring break, happy hour mecca, Daytona Beach). The listening posts were located on islands stretching from Cape Canaveral to Ascension Island in the eastern Atlantic Ocean; the islands included Grand Bahama,Eleuthera, Grand Turk, Antigua, Santa Lucia and several others.

One of the benefits of the remoteduty stations was the possibility of saving extra money, as a result of the out-of-countrybonus, tax benefits, and lack of opportunities for spending money: 

This is the sentence that iscredited with launching “happy hour” as a widely used term for times in whichdrink specials are available in bars.

We were first introduced to HappyHour by the early-20^th Century battleship, the USS Arkansas, whichat the time was probably one of the most dangerous and powerful weapons and meansof projecting military might on earth. TheArkansas met its end during early testing of the even more destructive atomic weapons. Happy Hour finally reached general acceptancein the language in 1959, thanks to the testing of intercontinental ballisticmissiles which, when armed with atomic warheads, are the most dangerous andpowerful weapons on earth. All-in-all,the history of “happy hour” reflects a rather sober pedigree for such anon-sober concept.  

I need a drink.  Perhaps an Atomic Cocktail!

Atomic Cocktail: Slim Gaillard Quartette [1946]