Leone's Magic Elixir

A modern day fan might find it hard to believe, but late in the 1950-51 season the hottest hockey items in New York City consisted of a strange liquid known as Leone's Magic Elixir and a World-Telegram sportswriter named Jim Burchard. During the season, life had become difficult for the New York Rangers. Their record was well below .500 by early December and unless some sort of miracle could be produced, the future appeared bleak. Gene Leone, an affable restaurateur and ardent Ranger fan, pondered the ingredients in his kitchen one day and suddenly an idea hit him. He'd distill some of his delectable juices, mix them with vintage wine from his cellar, and produce a "wonder drink" for the Rangers. It would be good publicity for Leone and perhaps it would boost his favorite team's sagging spirits.

Just before Christmas, Leone perfected his formula and poured it into a large black bottle about three times the size of a normal whiskey bottle. With appropriate fuss and fanfare, "Leone's Magic Elixir" was carried into the Ranger dressing room, where such heroes as Don "Bones" Raleigh, Pentti Lund, Frankie Eddolls, Neil Colville, and Zellio Toppazzini quaffed the brew.

To say the results were amazing would be an understatement. They were hallucinatory. After drinking the mixture the Rangers began to win and win and win. By early January they had lost only two of their eleven games, but observers insisted the real test would come when the Blueshirts visited Toronto, where they hadn't had a victory for ages.

Now the fun started. Leone demanded that the magic elixir, whose formula was so secret that he wouldn't even trust it to paper, be prepared at the last possible moment. This was done on Saturday afternoon. When the elixir was ready, he turned it over to Jim Burchard, who boarded a plane for Toronto. The plan was for Jim to arrive just before game time and present the potion to the Rangers.

Wearing his traditional black hat with its big brim turned down on each side, Burchard boarded the plane carrying a sealed bag containing the bottle of elixir surrounded by three hot-water bottles. A skull and cross- bones adorned the black zippered bag.

Unknown to the Ranger strategists, the Maple Leaf organization was arranging for the Canadian customs agent to seize the black bottle at Toronto Airport, denying its use to the New Yorkers. "Naturally," wrote Al Nickleson in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "the Leafs had been hoping the flagon would have been seized as an enemy power when Burchard wouldn't explain its contents."

But according to Nickleson, a Globe photographer named Harold Robinson saved the Rangers "by undermining the customs officer with stale jokes and Christmas cigars so that Burchard had no trouble slipping by." Then Robinson pushed Burchard into his car and set several Ontario speed records driving to Maple Leaf Gardens just in time for the quaffing.

Burchard had forgotten a corkscrew, so he had to push the cork down into the bottle. The Rangers, who actually detested the vile stuff, had their brief sips - some just gargled and spat it out - and then returned it to Burchard. "When the cork stops disintegrating," explained Burchard as he poured what the Rangers couldn't drink down the sink, "we know that the stuff has lost its power. Why, look at that! Here comes a mouse up the drain waving a white flag."

The Rangers, who enjoyed the joke more than the elixir itself, had their laughs and then went out on the ice and performed like supermen. Within seven minutes of the first period they scored three goals and coasted to a 4-2 win. Their victory caused a sensation. "CAMERAMAN LUGS FLAGITIOUS FLAGON," screamed a headline in the Globe and Mail. "RANGERS NEW AID SCORNED BY LEAFS," the Toronto Telegram roared. While players and scientists speculated on the elixir's contents, Leone said he'd bottle the stuff and sell it commercially.

"It tasted like the Atlantic Ocean," said photographer Robinson. "I think it's hot broth," said Leaf coach Joe Primeau. The Rangers had other opinions that are not fit to print, but the idea was appropriately conveyed by Toronto writer Bob Hesketh, who tasted the stuff. "It was a creamy liquid," said Hesketh, "that smelled just like water doesn't."

Occasionally, Leone would be distracted by business and forget to distill the potion. Once, when the Rangers lost to Detroit, Burchard explained, "The Leone brew wasn't on deck. Without it, the Rangers were under a psychological handicap."

After the loss, an SOS was dispatched to Leone, who quickly prepared more of the liquid, and the Rangers whipped Toronto, 2-1, the next night.

And so it went. Two weeks later, Burchard arrived in Toronto without the bottle and the Rangers lost. The papers attributed the loss to the missing elixir. Leone soon produced more, though, and it seemed to keep the Rangers in contention for a while longer. But the psychological value of the elixir had run its course and the Blueshirts faded into fifth place at the end of the season. The "elixir" that the Rangers really needed was in the form of good coaching and better players. Unfortunately, the New York sextet rarely obtained that formula for many seasons to come.

from "Strange But True Hockey Stories" by Stan Fischler