Complaint of the Young Movie Star Against Her Elderly Husband

(Just a warning that in my research for this drink I did find some upsetting history.) Sometimes when I see a glass I immediately think of a flavor and work around that. With this glass I tasted apricot and things took off from there. I found Rowan and Winters apricot liqueur and was quite pleased with the flavor. I then started to research apricot drinks as I usually do when I start a new drink to see if I can make a variation or get any guidance. I quickly found a Charlie Chaplin inspired cocktail that had apricot brandy and sloe gin and right below it was a Lita Grey cocktail inspired by his second wife. Her drink contained apricot liqueur, gin, sloe gin and topped with champagne. I loved this as a start for this glass’s cocktail and I thought it was a sweet sentiment until I started researching their history. Lita had been cast as Chaplin’s romantic interest in The Gold Rush at just 15 years old.  He pursued her off screen and she soon became pregnant and was forced to give up her leading role. The two were married for 3 years and it wasn’t a pleasant experience for the young Lita. Their divorce was all over the tabloids at the time and court documents were sold as entertainment under the name “Complaint of the young movie star against her elderly husband”.  Her career never really took off and I felt for her after everything I read.  She was so young and was taken advantage of by a man she trusted after getting what could have been the role of a lifetime. She never got to shine as brightly as she could have. So I thought I’d take her existing drink and add a smokey scotch to symbolize a woman’s rage- both Lita’s and my own after reading this story. I also switched sloe gin for Pims, orange for lemon and added some orange bitters. This certainly wasn’t the type of stuff I set out to find, but it feels important to remember that frequently the history of people we admire is rarely told in its entirety and many dark truths get swept under the rug. So shake one of these up for Lita Grey and all the other women who fell victim to famous (and no so famous) men.