Prohibition

[Story]

You people disappoint me...

 

[Stanley Doble]

Author James H. Gray wrote a fascinating book on the subject -- Booze: When Whisky Ruled the West -- which is still in print (although doesn't seem to be available on Amazon). It provides some great insight as to how the temperance movement came to power in Western Canada, and how the prohibition affected the everyday Joe.

(I've tried to Google up a link to the book, but the only links are to booksellers, and I don't want to turn this to a commercial post.)

I'm glad you brought up James Grey's book. It is the one serious study of the effects of prohibition that demonstrates its effectiveness. In western Canada at least prohibition was a great benefit to society, the law was obeyed for the most part. It cut way down on the problems caused by drinking and improved business in many ways as the money formerly spent on liquor went to better food, home furnishings etc.

A couple of things from his book stick in my mind. One is the fact that they had to close down 25% of the hospital beds for lack of patients, and many nurses completed their training without seeing a single case of delerium tremens or cirrhosis of the liver, which would have been impossible a few years earlier. Another was the reason he wrote the book. He read all kinds of things about prohibition being a bad idea, yet his experience was exactly the opposite. When he was a boy his father was an alcoholic and prohibition made a tremendous improvement in his father's life and in his family's life. So he decided to look up the facts and figures and find out if prohibition was good or bad.

I recommend this book as a counterweight to all the books that glorify bootlegging and sneer at prohibition.

Another odd fact not widely known. There were a number of Canadian bootleggers who supplied thousands of bottles of liquor to the US without breaking a single Canadian law.

Odd but true. Canada had prohibition but it was never the bone dry prohibition of the US. Distilleries continued to make liquor and it could be ordered from the distillery by anyone for personal use at home, or from a drug store by a doctor's prescription. It could also be bought for export.

Big bootleggers bought liquor by the carload and "exported" it from Great Lakes ports. All they had to do was fill out a customs declaration. The usual destination was "Cuba". Many a boat set sail for Cuba and returned within 24 hours.

Once they were home in Canada they were perfectly safe, as they had broken no Canadian laws.

 

[DNO]

The Canadian sources for decent quality alcohol became even busier when prohibition ended in Canada in 1927 yet continued in the U.S. until 1933.

Stanley...Cobourg as in Cobourg, Ontario? I was there on the weekend attending an auction.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Yes Cobourg Ontario. I couldn't think up anything clever to put there. The moniker is from 2 makes of steam cars from the 20s.

My grandfather ran a little liquor out of Port Hope in the early days of prohibition before they got into the speedboats and machine guns. In those days you could take a load across in an old fishing boat with no interference.

Legend has it the town's big rum runners were the Sculthorpes who also owned the Chevrolet dealership, and a lot of other things around town.

 

[DNO]

Welcome to the lounge,SD. I like your town quite a bit...you're gas is considerably cheaper than TO.

 

[Story]

http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2012/01/20/pf_uh_speakeasy_home.cnnmoney/

This turn-of-the-20th century home in the San Francisco real estate market may have even seen its share of spies back in the day. According to the homeowner Patricia Dodson, the house likely operated as a speakeasy during the heyday of Prohibition. The lower level contains a bar, secret entrance and a hidden getaway exit to the garden -- all still intact. The only major change made to the speakeasy by the homeowners was to widen the windows. Prohibition is long over, after all. Located on the edge of Presidio National Park, the estate features many period details including hand-carved wood moldings, coiffured ceilings and stained glass windows; a perfect spot for the modern-day Mata Hari.

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/real_estate_news/x60470900/Real-Estate-Impossible-Spy-Homes-for-Sale

 

[Story]

Jan. 9, 1930 New York Times: “The latest thing in speakeasies: Sergeant Frank T. Zimmie and Detective Joseph Pallinado of the Philadelphia Police, exhibiting one of the twelve pint bottles of liquor cached in the papier-mâché clothes dummy, draped with an evening gown, found in the tailor shop they raided.” Two days later, The Times published an article about claims of a “police protected” speakeasy made at a luncheon of the Women’s Organization for Prohibition Reform in Philadelphia.

 

[Espee]

Joke from a 1930 radio program:
"Why are the new long skirts a lot like Prohibition?"
"I don't know."
"They've both covered up a lot of old, familiar joints."

 

[Story]

Perfect for duck hunting, too.
http://www.classicboat.com/antique-boats-28-garwood-33h.htm

 

[Stearmen]

Love At First Sight

Perfect for duck hunting, too.
http://www.classicboat.com/antique-boats-28-garwood-33h.htm

I hate you! I want that Gar Wood so bad. Unfortunately not enough dough, or enough water neer me. Keep the great articles coming Story, I read them all!

 

[sheeplady]

That boat is a beauty. Probably worth every penny by the looks of it. Unfortunately I don't have enough pennies.

 

[Story]

Keep the great articles coming Story, I read them all!

Wow. I think you're the first person to thank me for all these breadcrumbs. Well, now I feel all warm and gooey inside.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

That boat is amazing. If I had that kind of money to play with, I'd never even think about a Maserati. Frighteningly, after drooling over that beauty, some of the other boats for sale look downright economical. That 1936 Chris Craft is a steal at $45,000.

 

[Stearmen]

Pure Class

Perfect for duck hunting, too.
http://www.classicboat.com/antique-boats-28-garwood-33h.htm

For those of you that have not looked at the link Story gave us, do your self a favor and take a peek! Then go to the boats for sale section, I still haven't made it through all of them. Wood Boats are pure class!

 

[Stearmen]

That boat is amazing. If I had that kind of money to play with, I'd never even think about a Maserati.

Can't argue with you on that point!

 

[Stearmen]

I've Been Drinking All Night Long

All this prohibition talk reminds me of this video that was sent to me a while back. Even though I'm not much of a drinker these days, it still brings a smile to my face! [video=youtube;3q02KnJrc6I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q02KnJrc6I&feature=watch_response[/video]

 

[Story]

That 1936 Chris Craft is a steal at $45,000.

Walk away from the fantasy while you still can - I dated someone who had owned an early 1960's vintage wood boat and the upkeep horror stories made Lovecraft sound like Dr. Seuss.

 

[The Lonely Navigator]

Wood Boats are pure class!

I totally agree - that was a very very nice boat.

 

[Flicka]

My ex had an all-wood sailing boat from '43 when we met. It was quite a handful...

 

[Story]

At 7 a.m. on Aug. 18, 1923, Berks County Sheriff Edward R. Deem and a cadre of county detectives gathered around a manhole in front of the county jail, then in downtown Reading.

Weeks earlier, state and local police had seized illicit booze in raids of Reading speakeasies, bootleg breweries and rural stills.

Not only did they put the bootleg brewers behind bars, they also locked up the booze in a jail cell.

There was so much of the stuff, a county judge ordered its disposal.

As the sun rose over Reading, well before the day's business began on Penn Street, Deem carried out the judge's order.

His crew dumped 34 barrels of beer and 75 bottles of moonshine whiskey - "bathtub gin" in Roaring '20s parlance - down the manhole into Reading's sewer system.

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=392769