A short clear tumbler of tomato-red drink with ice and a slim bar spoon stands beside a lemon wedge on a white plate, on a red-and-white checked cloth against a dark wall. — The Red Hammer over ice in a short tumbler, with a wedge of lemon.

Red Hammer, Hollywood’s 1942 Vodka and Tomato Juice

Name: Red Hammer
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 1/2 fl oz vodka; 1 1/2 fl oz chilled tomato juice; 1 tsp lemon juice; ice cubes

Jump to recipe

Vodka and tomato juice with a dash of lemon: the Red Hammer that LIFE called a new Hollywood cocktail in August 1942, at a Russian-themed party. We stir it over ice.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 25, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 drink
Prep: 3 min
Total: 3 min

Jump to recipe Read the story

The Red Hammer over ice in a short tumbler, with a wedge of lemon.

The story behind the recipe

The Red Hammer is vodka and tomato juice with a dash of lemon, under a name it carried in Hollywood in 1942. On August 24 of that year, LIFE ran a picture story called “Hollywood Goes Russian,” on Russian-costume parties and Russian War Relief work in the film colony, when the Soviet Union was America’s wartime ally. One photograph on page 38 shows the actress Helene Reynolds mixing a drink for Bob Turner at her party, and the caption calls the “Red Hammer” “a new Hollywood cocktail”: part tomato juice and part vodka, with a dash of lemon.

A name from the news

The caption gives no more than that: no measures, no glass, no ice. The name seems to fit the party’s Russian theme, but LIFE doesn’t explain it, and we found nothing that does. Three years earlier the same pairing had been named the Bloody Mary in New York, and in Havana the Mary Rose; The Bloody Mary’s Other Names follows them.

Making it today

Equal parts and a stirred glass over ice are our reading of “part ... and part,” so the measures here are a guess. With only a little lemon and no salt or Worcestershire, it is close to the plain 1939 drink, The Bloody Mary as First Described (1939), with a brighter edge. For a glass with no vodka, the Dodge Hotel Tomato Juice Cocktail from 1930 seasons cold tomato juice with salt, horseradish and a little sugar, the way the Dodge Hotel in Washington served it in 1930, three years before Prohibition ended.

Read the full story

Ingredients

For 1 drink. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 drink.

Vodka1 1/2 fl oz
Chilled tomato juice1 1/2 fl oz
Lemon juice1 tsp
Ice cubes

Ingredients as written here

1 1/2 fl oz vodka
1 1/2 fl oz chilled tomato juice
1 tsp lemon juice
ice cubes

Equipment

Glass or tumbler
Bar spoon

Instructions

Fill the glass with ice cubes.
Pour in the vodka, the chilled tomato juice and the lemon juice.
Stir with the bar spoon for about 10 seconds and serve.

Nutrition

105calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 drink

Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof vodka, canned tomato juice and lemon juice.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Scale by whole drinks; keep vodka and tomato juice equal.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

Changes from the source: LIFE gives only “part tomato juice and part vodka, with a dash of lemon.” The equal measures of 1 1/2 fl oz, the teaspoon of lemon juice, the ice, the glass and the stirring are ours.

Strength: 1 1/2 fl oz of 40% vodka is 0.6 fl oz of alcohol in about 4 fl oz of drink once stirred, so about 15%, or one US standard drink.

Tomato juice was already a cocktail on its own: a Washington hotel served the Dodge Hotel Tomato Juice Cocktail in 1930, with salt, horseradish and a little sugar.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.