Silly me, it was right there, above the formal start of the “Liquor List”: “Ruby Foo’s Special Zombie – 75 c”. I checked the menu again and now see it.
See the menu here (from nypl.org’s digitized menu collection), it is the same Ruby Foo’s menu I referenced in Part I, but not realizing the Zombie was there.
This source, www.newbookdigitaltexts.org. dates it to April 30, 1939, which is the opening date of the New York World’s Fair. Ruby Foo’s Sundial featured at the Perisphere there.
This accords with Harry Quin’s claim to have brought the Zombie to Ruby Foo’s before Monte Proser and his barman Ching introduced it in New York at the Manhattan Beachcomber or Proser’s Zombie bar at the New York World’s Fair. The Proser/Ching uses can only be documented, as far as I know, in 1940.
This adds considerably to the veracity of Harry Quin’s accounts to Malcolm Johnson in 1940 that he brought the Zombie to New York via Ruby Foos, and indirectly supports his invention story viz. Chicago in 1916.
True, Quin could simply have lifted Donn the Beachcomber’s idea before Monte Proser did, or the owner of Ruby Foo’s may in fact have done so – but if a key part of Quin’s creation account to Malcolm Johnson is true, it adds to the veracity of the other part.
The final, Part V of this series follows.