Sour (cocktail) claims the White Lady (gin, Cointreau, fresh lemon juice). The recipe appears in his "Savoy Cocktail Book", published in 1930. Joe Gilmore, former Head Barman at The Savoy, says this was one of Laurel and Hardy's favorite drinks. In John le Carré's 1965 novel "The Looking Glass War", British spy and main protagonist Fred Leiser's favorite drink is a White Lady, and he makes several attempts to get other agents to try the cocktail. In Dorothy Sayers' mystery novel "Have His Carcase" Lord Peter has a White Lady when he hears about his "Lady" Miss Harriet Vane being in trouble
The Cocktail Hour opens on Bradley and Ann having preprandial cocktails with their middle-aged, ostensibly single son and daughter. The cocktail hour stretches out because "the maid doesn't know how to cook a roast". So the little family carries on consuming increasing amounts of alcohol leading to increasing arguments. Their son, John, is an editor at a publishing company and a part-time playwright. He has written a play that seems to present an unflattering picture of the family, and the parents are upset. The discussion of John's play, which is also called "The Cocktail Hour", gives Gurney a lot of opportunity to lampoon