Harry K. Yee (September 26, 1918 – December 7, 2022) was an American bartender from

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

, who was credited with having helped to spread

tiki culture Tiki culture is an American-originated art, music, and entertainment movement inspired by Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian cultures. Inspired by Oceanian art, influential cultures to Tiki culture include Australasia, Melanesia, Micrones ...

during the mid-twentieth century, both in Hawaii and in the continental United States. He invented the

Blue Hawaii ''Blue Hawaii'' is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written Americ ...

cocktail, and is attributed with being the first bartender to use paper parasols and vanda orchids in tiki drinks.

Biography

Born on September 26, 1918, Yee began bartending in 1952, before the advent of

jet airliner A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have two or four jet engines; three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Airliners are commonly cl ...

s and seven years before

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

an statehood. He soon joined

Henry Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of ...

Hawaiian Village Hotel The Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort is a resort hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The resort first opened in 1955, and since has grown to become the largest in the Hilton chain of hotels, and one of largest hotels in th ...

, where he served as head bartender for more than thirty years. Along with Ernest Gantt ("Donn Beach") and Victor Jules Bergeron ("

Trader Vic Trader Vic's is a restaurant and tiki bar chain headquartered in Emeryville, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. (December 10, 1902 in San Francisco – October 11, 1984 in Hillsborough, California) founded a chain of Polyn ...

"), Yee did much to popularize a faux version of the tropics consisting of

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

drinks, hula girls, and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. Yee's time at the bar spanned statehood and the rise of Hawaii as a major international travel and retirement destination. When he began, Hawaii hosted approximately 100,000 visitors per year, mostly around

Waikiki Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six beaches in the district ...

. By the time he retired tourism exceeded five million visitors, compared to seven million today. Yee's many innovations were an attempt to create a sense of locale for his tourist customers. When they asked for Hawaiian drinks, he had nothing to offer because there was no such thing, so he invented them and often coined names on the spot. Yee is attributed with being the first bartender to use paper parasols and Vanda Orchids in tiki drinks. In an interview on the subject Yee said "We used to use a

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

stick arnishes and people would chew on the stick, then put it in the ashtray. When the ashes and cane stuck together it made a real mess, so I put orchids in the drink to make the ashtrays easier to clean. I wasn't thinking about romance." At times during his career he was a

teetotaler Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or i ...

who relied on his customers for feedback on his drinks. He did not drink

, preferring

cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the Communes of France, commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the Departments of France, departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cog ...

. After retiring, he taught for several years at the Bartending Training Institute in Honolulu. On December 7, 2022, Yee died at the age of 104. His death was reported the following day on social media by bar manager and cocktail book author

Cheryl Charming Cheryl Charming (born November 19, 1960) is an American bar professional and published author of 16 books on cocktails and bartending. She currently works as the Bar Director at the Bourbon "O” Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in 2014 was nam ...

Cocktail innovations

During his more than thirty years of bartending in

, Yee is attributed with inventing many cocktails, including: * The Banana

Daiquiri The daiquiri (; es, daiquirí ) is a cocktail whose main ingredients are rum, citrus juice (typically lime juice), and sugar or other sweetener. The daiquiri is one of the six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic ''The Fine Art o ...

* The Blue Hawaii * The Chimp in Orbit * The Hawaiian Eye — it was featured in the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

that used the hotel he worked in as a backdrop * The Hot Buttered

Okolehao Okolehao is a Hawaiian alcoholic spirit whose main ingredient was the root of the ti plant. Okolehao's forerunner was a fermented ti root beverage or beer. When distillation techniques were introduced by English seamen in 1790, it was distilled ...

* Tapa Punch — the first drink he put a paper parasol in * The Tropical Itch (a popular drink that substitutes a bamboo

backscratcher A backscratcher (occasionally known as a scratch-back) is a tool used for relieving an itch in an area that cannot easily be reached just by one's own hands, typically the back. Composition and variation They are generally long, slender, rod-s ...

for a

swizzle stick A swizzle stick is a small stick used to stir drinks. The original swizzle sticks were created in the 18th century at a rum plantation in the West Indies using the branch of the ''Quararibea turbinata'' (also known as the "Swizzle stick tree"). ...

) As is common with Tiki drinks, not all drink invention attributions go unchallenged. Some credit other bartenders with having invented the Banana Daiquiri and the Hawaiian Eye cocktail.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yee, Harry 1918 births 2022 deaths American bartenders American centenarians Men centenarians People from Honolulu Tiki culture