Tuesday, July 31, 2001 | 8:36 a.m.
The International Swizzle Stick Collectors Association Convention next week at the Boardwalk is stirring up interest among the curious.
People actually collect swizzle sticks? And they're all over the world? And they are organized? And they have conventions?
Yes, yes, yes and yes.
The club has about 125 members worldwide. Sixty will be at the meeting Aug. 6-8. The event is not open to the public.
Ray Hoare, 64, president and one of the founders of the ISSCA in 1985, lives near Vancouver, B.C. He says he's confident that during the past 16 years he has gotten to know nearly all of the most avid swizzle stick collectors about 300 of them.
"Since we put up a web page (swizzlesticks-issca.com), we're starting to get some good footing in Europe," Hoare said. "We've got a member in Japan and one in Ireland. And we just had a member join from France."
Conventions are held every other year, always in Las Vegas. It isn't that this is the swizzle stick capital of the world -- although because of all the bars it might be -- it's just a fun place for the collectors to gather.
But Hoare says the collectors keep a low profile -- they don't want to stir up trouble.
"As soon as the casinos get wind we are in town, they hide their swizzle sticks," he said.
That may be a stab at swizzle stick humor. A billion-dollar casino probably wouldn't miss a piece of plastic that cost a few pennies to make.
"Swizzle sticks aren't worth a hill of beans," Hoare said. "They're a throwaway item."
So why do people collect them?
"Some people think they're going to make a lot of money," Hoare said.
The most expensive swizzle stick he has seen is one that sold for about $70.
"It's insanity," Hoare said. "I've gotten myself into some heavy debates about people chasing up the price of these things. I try to tell people to keep the prices down."
Hoare and his wife, Vera, collect the sticks because it's fun and they have made a lot of friends through the hobby.
"It's for the camaraderie," Hoare said. "You meet some good people. It's just a fun time, but we are trying to keep a lid (on the prices) so it won't get out of hand."
So what do the wild-and-crazy collectors of swizzle sticks do at a convention? Attend mixers, of course. But there are plenty of other things to do.
"It's very informal," Hoare said. "There will be displays. A lot of members will be talking about different aspects of collecting. There will be trading sessions, and workshops on stick identifying."
Hoare has more than 50,000 swizzle sticks. He keeps them in a bedroom that has been converted into a private swizzle stick museum, but he says he doesn't advertise the fact much because "there are some crazies out there."
"The sticks are in alphabetical order and color order," he said. "I have one of each. I dare anybody to find two of the same swizzle stick in the whole collection. If they do, they can have the entire collection."
Hoare spends more than 40 hours a week on swizzle stick-related activities. He became interested in them as a child.
"My folks enjoyed bar hopping," he said. "When I was 10 or 12 they used to bring back swizzle sticks for me."
Hoare spent 35 years in the investment business. Twelve years ago he retired and became a bartender, where he should have plenty of opportunities to indulge his love of swizzle sticks.
"Nah, we don't use them," he said. "We just use straws."
Birth of a notion
One might think the stirrers have been around since the times of ancient Egypt, but actually a patent was taken out on the first swizzle stick in 1935 by Jay Sindler of Boston.
Sindler was sitting at a bar in a hotel having a martini that had an olive in the bottom of the glass. He wondered how he could remove the olive before finishing the drink and without getting his fingers wet.
An engineer by profession, Sindler sketched out a wooden spear that could be used, called it a swizzle stick after a popular rum cocktail and then patented the simple tool.
After obtaining a patent, Sindle started a company called Spir-it, which has changed hands several times over the years but is still around and based in Wakefield, Mass.
"The swizzle stick took a little time to catch on," said Joe Pierro, vice president of sales and marketing for the company. "But today we produce several billion a year."
Spir-it, he said, is the largest producer of swizzle sticks in the world.
Not much has changed about the swizzle stick since the first one was invented, except that they first were made of wood, and during World War II they became predominately plastic.
"Basically, it's an advertising tool, a promotional product that has a little bit of nostalgia to it," Pierro said.
The swizzle stick is popular with large companies, such as casinos, hotels and airlines.
The stick's shape is limited only by the imagination.
"Some are in the shape of dolphins, mermaids and palm trees," Pierro said. "In the sports category, there are hockey sticks and baseball bats.
"We have cactus-shaped sticks, barbed wire and cowboy boots. TWA always had a propeller-looking stirrer."
Swizzle stick conventioneers should be happy to know that since TWA recently was bought out by American Air, TWA's swizzle sticks now are a collectors' item.
Picking up sticks
Las Vegas resident Bob Akins, 68, has been collecting swizzle sticks for more years than he can remember.
The retired U.S. Marines master sergeant spent 20 years in the military, traveling all over the world, picking up sticks wherever he went.
"It was just something I started doing now and then," he said.
He would collect them, get transferred to a new locale and throw them away and collect some more.
"After I retired, I just hung on to them," Akins said.
He said when people learn he collects swizzle sticks, "They are totally amazed. They wonder why would anybody collect them."
Akins moved to Las Vegas in 1988 and joined the ISSCA after learning about the association three years later.
He has taken on much of the work in organizing the event, of which he and Hoare are co-chairmen.
Akins has about 25,000 swizzle sticks.
He almost had to fight for his life to get one of the swizzle sticks in his collection -- it's one shaped like a woman's leg, from the hip down to a high-heeled shoe. Akins got the stick at a topless bar in Hong Kong.
"I saw these sticks and I asked the bartender, who was a young lady who weighed about 290 pounds, if I could have one," he recalled. "When I told her I don't drink, that I just wanted the swizzle stick, she called me all kinds of names and started coming over the bar after me."
Akins grabbed the desirable swizzle stick and ran away, shaken but not stirred.
Swizzle kid
Connie Shepherd, who lives in Warren, Mich., is a newcomer to collecting swizzle sticks.
"My brother belonged to a swizzle stick club in California and I thought he had lost his marbles until one day he signed me up and I had so much fun that I started collecting," Shepherd, 73, said during a recent telephone interview.
That was four years ago.
"If you saw my swizzle sticks collection you would see the fascination for them," Shepherd said. "There are so many kinds, so many from places that have closed, old hotels, old restaurants."
She has bout 29,000 swizzle sticks.
"Some people look at me kind of funny when they find out I collect swizzle sticks, but I met two of my best friends thanks to swizzle sticks," she said.
Shepherd is a retired registered nurse and a former school librarian. Her husband Bob, who does not collect swizzle sticks, is a retired professor.
"He is going to give a talk at the convention on the joys and frustrations of being a swizzle stick spouse."
That should be a stirring speech.
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