Crosby Gaige

1882–1949

Post-prohibition taste-maker

Crosby Gaige was a high profile theater producer, writer, epicure, gourmand, bon vivant and ubiquitous socialite—a difficult to avoid figure within the mid-Century New York mediasphere. Gaige was a contemporary of James Beard, a noted cookbook collector, and he wrote several recipe books, himself, including “Cocktail Guide and Ladies’ Companion” (1941) and “The Standard Cocktail Guide” (1944). Gaige was one of the people who restored cocktails’ cultural caché in the wake of Prohibition.