“Harry’s New York Bar x Rowing Blazers Green Tote” (New) The Cary Collection

Sturdy natural canvas tote bag with Harry’s famous bar flies motif print

100% cotton canvas tote bag

One size. 16″ x 20″

Harry’s New York Bar is a bar in Paris, France located at 5, Rue Daunou, between the Avenue de l’Opéra and the Rue de la Paix. The bar was acquired by former American star jockey Tod Sloan in 1911, who converted it from a bistro and renamed it the “New York Bar.” Sloan had gone partners with a New Yorker named Clancy (first name unknown) who owned a bar in Manhattan. That bar was dismantled and shipped to Paris. Sloan then hired Harry MacElhone, a barman from Dundee, Scotland, to run the bar.

Over the years, Harry’s New York Bar was frequented by a number of famous American expatriates and international celebrities such as Prince Serge Obolensky, Knute Rockne, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Daft Punk, Bill Tilden, Coco Chanel, Jack Dempsey, Primo Carnera, Ramon Novarro, Aly Khan, Rita Hayworth, Humphrey Bogart, Brendan Behan (who worked there circa 1948-49 according to his memoirs Confessions of an Irish Rebel), and even, occasionally, the Duke of Windsor

In the 1960 Ian Fleming short story “From a View to a Kill”, James Bond recalls visiting Harry’s Bar during his first visit to Paris at age 16. He followed the instructions in Harry’s advertisement in the Continental Daily Mail, and told his taxi driver “Sank Roo Doe Noo”. He recalls “That had started one of the memorable evenings of his life, culminating in the loss, almost simultaneous, of his virginity and his notecase”.