Bartender Murphy Pours for Reunions

Bill Murphy started tending bar for Harvard reunions when members of the Class of 1951 were juniors and just becoming old enough to drink. Yesterday, Murphy mixed drinks for the Class of 1926 at the Busch-Reisinger Museum.

Four buses disgorged the class members in front of the museum at 11:45 a.m. and almost immediately a line formed in front of the bar manned by Murphy and colleague Eddie Sullivan. One hour later, the line was still long and class members and their wives were still keeping Sullivan and Murphy busy.

Exhausted Cops

"This is a big drinking class," Murphy said as he poured a double Scotch. During pre-luncheon cocktails, about 350 people exhausted the supply of 1000 cups, and new ones had to be brought in.

The class members drank a lot, Murphy said, considering that most of them are 72 years old. "A lot asked for doubles, and when they asked for martinis they wanted very little vermouth in them," he said.

"They drank a lot of bloody Marys this morning because they were drinking last night," Murphy said.

In his first mixing job at Harvard, Murphy tended bar for the Class of 1914 reunion in 1950. "They graduated the year I was born," Murphy said. Murphy added that every subsequent year he worked for the class one specific member promised to make him an honorary member of the class the following year.

This year, Murphy is working for 16 class reunions, ranging from the Class of 1912 to the Class of 1938. Murphy estimates that he has worked at about 1800 functions for Harvard since 1950.

With these 26 years of bartending for Harvard, Murphy has developed a theory on the drinking patterns of the different classes. "The old crowd drinks scotch, bourbon and gin. They won't drink a blend," Murphy said, adding that he probably shouldn't have opened the blended whisky; by the end of the lunch, only six members of the class of 1926 party had requested a blended whiskey drink.

"The younger classes drink gin, scotch, vodka and some bourbon," Murphy said. While Harvard celebrators drink mostly scotch and bourbon, their counterparts at Wellesley prefer gin, and at Boston University drink a lot of blended whiskey, he added.

The Busch-Reisinger Party was also stocked with 14 cases of beer. Before the class arrived, Murphy estimated that the '26ers would consume only one case, and by the end of the day the class had drunk only a half case more than Murphy estimated.

"We drank the most at the 15th reunion," Alfred Thomas '26 said at yesterday's gathering. "Now, we're drinking about the same amount that we did at the 25th. Then, I didn't see anyone who was drunk, but at the 15th I saw plenty who were," Thomas added.

William Exton Jr. '26 doesn't believe his class drinks enough. Exton said there were too many teetotalers in his class. "You've got to put it inside and master it," he said.

"When liquor is absorbed in the appropriate circumstances, there is an enhancement of fellowship through diminution of inhibitions," he added.

Exton reminisced about going to college during the Prohibition. "We went to Scully Square [a section of Boston torn down to make way for Government center]," Exton said. "If you asked for tea, they'd serve you a terrible red wine in a cup."