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Mark Twain once said, "It is the prohibition that makes anything precious." The United States learned that lesson the hard way not long after January 17, 1920, when it made the nation’s fifth-largest industry largely illegal. Smuggling alcohol during Prohibition became its own industry, inciting the growth of illicit activity and organized crime. But necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and some of the ways people hid alcohol during Prohibition were very inventive. If it hadn’t all come to an end in 1933, hiding liquor might have become another major industry.
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The 18th Amendment was intended to help America sober up
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but as we all now know, it didn't really go that way. Instead, smuggling alcohol during Prohibition
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became a massive industry, and at the heart of that industry were the bootleggers
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So today, we're going to take a look at what it was like to be a Prohibition bootlegger
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OK, buckle up. We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there
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In 1917, the United States Congress voted to approve a constitutional amendment
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banning the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages. It would be ratified by the states in 1919
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and by 1920, prohibition was the law of the land, to the disappointment of animated sitcom ads everywhere
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The 18th Amendment was the crowning achievement of the temperance movement, which traced its roots back to the 19th century
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Supporters of the movement blamed a lot of society's ills on the consumption of alcohol
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and generally thought people would be healthier and happier without it. The reality of prohibition, however, turned out to be very different
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Crime rates soared, gang violence intensified, and alcohol was still widely available
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And it was mostly because of bootleggers. The federal law that carried out the intent of the 18th Amendment was known as the Volstead Act
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which permitted alcohol like whiskey and brandy if prescribed by a physician for medicinal purposes
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Unsurprisingly, many Americans quickly became very health conscious, and doctors made $40 million writing prescriptions for alcohol
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That's about a half billion dollars in today's dollars, which is a lot of hooch
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But if you couldn't convince your doctor to write you a prescription, you had to rely on the bootleggers
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Bootleggers obviously couldn't sell their product door to door, so they needed a secret place where drinkers could come to them
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That place was the speakeasy. Speakeasies, also known as blind tigers or blind pigs, because if you're going to break the law, you might as well have fun with it
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were illegal establishments typically owned or controlled by a criminal syndicate. Speakeasies started out as little more than a place to sit and drink
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As prohibition dragged on, however, many expanded to include entertainment. And despite frequent raids by the police, the businesses were profitable and popular
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In 1925, one New York bootlegger even alleged that a specific cross street in midtown Manhattan contained 32 speakeasies
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If one was shut down, the clientele would just start going to the next place
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So they were a secret, but they weren't that secret. Speakeasies also had an appreciable effect on American culture
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being among the first businesses where people of all races would mix and mingle These drinking establishments looking to pad their profits were also generally welcoming of women which was still something of a novelty at the time And of course they left their mark on drinking culture
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The quality of the booze available at the speakeasies often wasn't too great
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so cocktails that emphasized the taste of raw liquor fell out of fashion
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Instead, mixed drinks that masked the liquor's flavor became all the rage
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Now you know who to blame for Jagerbombs. Being a bootlegger took a lot more than just making alcohol
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For one, you had to be a bit of a con man. Bootlegging often required selling booze that was watered down from higher quality products
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but that didn't mean you'd want to charge less for it. On the contrary, in a piece published in the New Yorker in 1926
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one unnamed bootlegger pointed out that customers would assume the booze was high quality
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if they were paying what they'd expect to pay for high quality booze. Plus, what were they going to do
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Not buy it? Have you ever tried being sober in the 1920s
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A bootlegger also had to be able to drop the right name if they got picked up by the police
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That same anonymous bootlegger told the New Yorker that he was typically given the name of a crooked politician to drop to the cops
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who would then let him go scot-free. Bootleggers also had to be comfortable moving around in cramped spaces
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Why? Because moving booze around a city often required the use of secret tunnels
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Los Angeles bootleggers used a network of tunnels that was originally built for trolley cars
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Meanwhile, Chicago bootleggers used a series of basements in the Uptown area
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that allegedly connected places like the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, the Uptown Theater, and the Aragon Ballroom
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In case all the secret passageways didn't tip you off, hiding alcohol during Prohibition required some inventiveness
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One way to travel around with your secret stash was a flask cane or tippling cane
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These were hollow canes one could fill with their drink of choice, for those days when you felt like getting hammered while still looking distinguished
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Alternatively, folks could carry their drink around in a thigh flask, also known as a thigh tin
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Calling this a flask is a bit of an understatement, since they were so big you pretty much had to wear an overcoat to hide one
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Luckily, there were more discreet versions like the garter flask. which women could strap to their legs
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There were also fake book flasks, which were exactly what they sounded like
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fake books with liquor inside. These could get pretty elaborate. For example, one fake book concealing four flasks
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came with a clever title, Spring Poems, The Four Swallows. Huh, only slightly more subtle than
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The Hardy Boys and the Case of the Hidden Booze. Of course, people needed ways to hide larger quantities as well
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For example it is estimated that up to 75 of alcohol consumed in the U during the Prohibition era came from bootlegging operations between Windsor Canada and Detroit Michigan
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So how did they move all that booze across the Detroit River? Easy
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Both ordinary people and gangsters alike could transport up to 40 cases of alcohol an hour
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via torpedoes pulled across the river on an underwater cable system. The river could also be crossed in speedboats guarded by lookouts with binoculars
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And during the winter, when the water froze over, gutsy bootleggers might just drive the booze right across the ice
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If all else failed, there was always a good old-fashioned booze mule
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men who would strap alcohol-filled pouches all over their torso, throw on an overcoat, and then just walk to their destination
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Has anyone ever worn an overcoat who wasn't hiding something? In the early years of Prohibition
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bootleggers were often supplied by so-called rum runners who would smuggle alcohol across
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international waters. The job entailed enormous risks. Because most rum running took place under
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cover of darkness and in fog, it wasn't unusual for ships to sink with all hands on deck
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Gun battles with the Coast Guard were also common. This made it increasingly difficult to get larger
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boats to the coast, so the rum runners began keeping their vessels just outside U.S. territorial
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limits. This line, three miles out to sea, became known as Rum Row. Smugglers would wait at Rum Row
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then rendezvous with lighter, more agile crafts called contact boats, which would bring the rum
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ashore. Successful rum runners could make upwards of $100,000 a year, which was a whole lot of money
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in the 20s. Heck, it's a whole lot of money now. But you'd probably want to think twice before
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making a career change. In addition to all the dangers, most rum runners worked for some of the
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most vicious organized crime syndicates in the world. As anyone who's ever seen The Untouchables
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or Boardwalk Empire knows, no one benefited from prohibition more than organized crime
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Gangsters who previously made their livings running gambling and prostitution rings quickly switched over to bootlegging once they realized how much greater the profits were
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Organizations like the mafia flourished at an unprecedented scale, and the corruption of public
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officials became commonplace. Unlike today, when it's less commonplace, hmm. The most notorious
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gangster of the era was Al Capone, who made a fortune selling bootleg liquor in Chicago
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Gangsters like Capone used violence to secure their power, and in the first four years of
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Prohibition alone, over 200 gangland slayings were recorded in Chicago. Capone, however
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wasn't the only terrifying legitimate businessman of the Prohibition era. Notorious gangsters
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like Dutch Schultz Charles Lucky Luciano Dino Banyan Arnold the Brain Rothstein Enoch Lewis Nucky Johnson and Benjamin Bugsy Siegel were all involved in bootlegging to some degree
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As good as it was for organized crime, prohibition was terrible for the legitimate manufacturing industry
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Records show that in 1873, the U.S. had approximately 4,000 breweries. As temperance picked up steam by 1910, there were closer to 1,500
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From 1920 to 1933, of course, there were none. Yet some of those companies did manage to survive
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Wisconsin's Pabst Brewing Company struck the word brewing from its name and started producing a cheese spread called Pabstet
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No word on whether the spread also won a blue ribbon. Yingling switched to near beer with three offerings
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The Yangling Special, Yangling Portor, and Yangling Juvo. They also started making ice cream, which maybe tastes like beer
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Anheuser-Busch also tried out the ice cream business and experimented with soft drinks and non-alcoholic malt beverages
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And a few distilleries, like Jim Bean, managed to scrape by thanks to the medicinal alcohol exception to the dry laws
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Believe it or not, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR
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traces its roots back to outlaw moonshiners trying to keep one step ahead of the fuzz
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The practice of moonshining actually dates back to the 18th century, but prohibition kicked it into high gear
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Both demand and supply skyrocketed, and the moonshiners needed a safe, effective, and low-key way to move all that alcohol around
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The answer became cars that appeared to be stock on the outside, but on the inside were anything but
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These cars were outfitted with high-powered engines so they could outrun the law
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heavy-duty shocks and springs to protect their cargo, and usually had their backseats removed for additional storage space or for some rad subwoofers
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When prohibition ended, many of the moonshine runners still had their souped-up stock cars
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Organized races became common, and in December of 1947, a mechanic named Big Bill France decided to take it to the next level. He met with various car
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owners, drivers, and mechanics to establish a set of standardized racing rules. The result of their
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agreement was NASCAR, and beer commercials have never been the same. In 1933, after what was
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undoubtedly a very long 13 years, the United States Congress decided to repeal Prohibition
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The 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, was submitted to the states for ratification in February
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Legend has it that soon after, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt opined to an aide that it was surely a good time for a beer