THE MANHATTAN MOVERS' SHAKER

As the commercial capital of the New World, New York loves to celebrate all things that are its oldest. Bowling Green is its oldest park, Pete's Tavern its oldest restaurant and crocodiles in the sewers its oldest myth. And today, the town will stop to salute a man who, as far as anyone can tell, is its oldest living bartender.

Hoy Wong, who turns 90 this morning, is indeed still alive and thriving and, more importantly, still showing up for work five nights a week to watch over his flock of corporate-card spenders and would-be literati at the Blue Bar in the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street, which, while not quite the oldest hostelry in the city (built in 1902), is surely one of its most storied and most antique in atmosphere.

It is a nostalgic match made in Heaven. The Algonquin is the hotel where Dorothy Parker held her writers' salons after the First World War, accompanied by the likes of Robert Benchley and Harold Ross, who conceived The New Yorker magazine there. Hoy Wong, meanwhile, is the only martini shaker left who can reminisce about the stars of an era, all of whom he served and befriended. Think Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin, Judy Garland and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The hotel, which had no difficulty discerning the chance for a little free advertising, is not allowing the birthday of Hoy Wong, known to everyone here as Mister Hoy, to pass by quietly. A party for some 350 of his friends and most loyal regulars was planned in the Algonquin's main reception room last night. Also on hand to raise a glass to him will be CNN and a throng of local reporters.

All of which might be a bit too much for anyone of lesser stamina than Mr Hoy, who commutes most days from Queens across the East River. As a concession to his comfort, he is being put up this week in one of the guest rooms. After an early mid-morning catnap, he stirred himself yesterday to descend to his nocturnal home, the Blue Bar, to share some of his many memories with The Independent.

He settles in one of the upholstered benches (leather, in blue, of course), sharply dressed in a summer seersucker jacket with a Stars and Stripes pin in one lapel. Around the walls are original drawings by the legendary New Yorker cartoonist, Al Hirschfeld, depicting performers from hit Broadway musicals, from The Sound of Music to Chicago. Members of staff, soberly dressed in their all- black uniforms with silver name-tags, pop in every minute or so to greet their favourite co-worker. "Good Morning, Mr Hoy!" He smiles, with eyes more lively and keen than someone his age is usually entitled to enjoy.

"It's rare in your life when you meet some who really is the real deal, like him," says the hotel's general manager, Bill Liles. "He is by far our most dependable employee, always a smile on his face. And he has quite a female following, quite a sex symbol in New York. He is an icon, really."

The lapel pin is Mr Hoy's homage to the country that has given him such fortune. He arrived in San Francisco from Hong Kong in 1940, before moving to New York two years later. In 1943, he enlisted with the US Army Air Force, and from 1943 until 1946 was stationed first in India and then in China. His memories of those days are still vivid and anyone who asks should be ready to spare a few minutes.

His first bar job came in 1948, when he began work at a now- defunct Chinese restaurant and a 53rd Lexington called Freeman hums. "The boss, he knew a of politicians, a lot of people," Mr Hoy recalls in his still-fragmented English, signalling he ready now to begin with his of celebrities he has known for whom he has mixed drinks.

Judy Garland came in regularly with a friend but was generally sad". She was also, he - isn't there a barman's of discretion equivalent to Hippocratic Oath? - quite a person for downing the booze. "She said keep going,"

Mr Hoy says amidst a protracted spell of chuckling and making the gesture of pouring a drink. "Keep going, keep going." Garland liked Johnnie Walker mostly, apparently.

Jerry Lewisused to go into Freeman Chums when he was in town, as did Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye, who would pull his jacket over his head as he came in to elude the attention of fans on the pavement. "Marilyn Monroe came in for lunch every Wednesday when she was in New York with her second husband, Arthur Miller," he reports. "Always Beefeater Martini, dry. Never change!"

Mr Hoy admits that even today at the Blue Bar, where he has worked since 1979, new brands of drinks come in every day and each day he learns new concoctions from his patrons. "Always learning. My whole life I learn, mostly from my customers." It's part of what keeps him buzzing, that and just the joy of meeting fresh people every night.

One occasion when he needed help sticks in his mind, all the way back to his days at Freeman Chums, where he stayed until it closed in 1960. The Hollywood actress, Judy London - still a big name in those days - came through the door. "She asked me to do a martini 'on toast'," he remembers. "I said, 'I don't know how to make this drink'. So she came to the bar and showed me how to do it. A real nice woman."