Joe said Vic's had served drinks with cocktail umbrellas up until the early 1940s, when importation of the little parasols from factories in the Far East was halted by the outbreak of war. I'm the guy who was stealing cherries from behind the bar when I was eight years old. Good enough for us. Efforts to confirm this with Chinese and Chinese-American firms selling the umbrellas today were unsuccessful, no doubt because everyone had sworn a blood oath of secrecy with the tongs. However, we have seen nothing to convince us that the umbrellas are actually native to Polynesia, as some foolishly believe.
Some tiki devotees argue that they shield the ice cubes from intense solar radiation.
Joe wasn't having any of that, though. They were simply a means of decorating a fancy beverage, he said, along with miniature ceramic parrots, Tahitian war clubs, and Marquesan canoe paddles. But they're so iconic , whined the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board. No opinions, no made up stories about wedding veils, coal, suits, or brass tacks. The whole nine yards refers to the length of one ammunition belt from a belly-gunner's machine gun.