Speakeasy
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A speakeasy was a high-end, unlicensed establishment or barroom that allowed the illegal selling and drinking of alcoholic beverages despite a ban against all alcoholic beverages enacted as a criminal law. These establishments promoted companies to evade bans on drinking which led to the period of United States history known as Prohibition (1920–1933, longer in some states). During this time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation (bootlegging) of alcoholic beverages were illegal. In smaller cities and rural towns, speakeasies were known by the term blind pig or blind tiger which catered to the lower class.
Speakeasies became more popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed and more of them were operated by people connected to organized crime. Although police and Bureau of Prohibition agents would raid them and arrest the owners and patrons, the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that they continued to flourish throughout America. In major cities, speakeasies were often quite elaborate, offering food, live music, floor shows, and clad-dressed women called flappers. Corruption was rampant — speakeasy operators routinely bribed police to leave them alone or to give them advance notice of raids.
History
Speakeasies so-named were born in Pennsylvania in 1888, when the Brooks High-License Act raised the state fee for a saloon license to $500 from $50. The number of licensed bars promptly plummeted, but not all the barkeeps unable to get a license shut their doors. Kate Hester had run a saloon in McKeesport, just outside of Pittsburgh, for years; she refused to pony up the new license fee and wanted to keep from drawing attention to her newly illicit joint. When her patrons got too rowdy, she hushed them in a hoarse whisper: "Speak easy, boys! Speak easy!" It wasn't long before Hester's "expression became common in McKeesport and spread to Pittsburgh.[1]
Blind pigs and blind tigers
The term blind pig (or blind tiger) originated in the United States in the nineteenth century; it was applied to lower class establishments that sold alcoholic beverages illegally. The operator of an establishment (such as a saloon or bar) would charge customers to see an attraction (such as an animal) and then serve a “complimentary” alcoholic beverage, thus circumventing the law.
The difference between a speakeasy and a blind pig was that a speakeasy was usually a higher-class establishment that offered food, music, live entertainment, or even all three. In large cities, some speakeasies even required a coat and tie for men, and evening dress for women. But a blind pig was usually a low-class dive where only beer and liquor were offered.
Locations
In many rural towns, small speakeasies and blind pigs were operated by local business owners as a way of making extra money. These family secrets were often kept even after Prohibition ended. For example, in 2007 secret underground rooms thought to have been a speakeasy were found by renovators on the grounds of the Cyber Cafe West in Binghamton, New York[2].
Speakeasy locations were largely known in the cities of New York and Chicago. However, these establishments could be found in many cities both big and small across the United States during the Prohibition era.
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Culture
The Speakeasy Gangster
The era of Prohibition played host to the growth of many organized crime gangs and gave birth to the gangster. Successfully taking advantage of the bootlegging industry around the country, names like “Dutch” Schultz, Alphonse “Scarface” Capone, and Charles “Lucky” Luciano made millions by supplying beer and liquor to speakeasy proprietors across the United States.
Speakeasies became the establishments that gangsters not only fed on for their living, but also became their offices and homes in which they had their meetings. The flare of the speakeasy gave gangsters the class of the modern man and their lifestyle extravagant; as fashionable silk suits, expensive jewelry, and guns were typical dress code for the gangster. The code of honor amongst speakeasy gangsters was that they were businessman above all else and it was not good business for speakeasy to be anything but a place of entertainment, music, and women; not brawls.
Sexual Revolution
In the early twentieth-century, America’s first sexual revolution appeared in the icon of the flapper. The flapper was the ideal of beauty and free will for women exchanging the image of women in aprons with images of sexual vitality.
Within larger cities, young females forged into a world of heterosexual freedom unlike generations before them. The new variety of enjoyment for unchaperoned females challenged the typical family expectations for women to marry and have children. Men started to bring reputable women to establishments where men had previously gone alone or with less desirable females. "Upper- class" women and prostitutes now dressed similarly and frequented the same sexually integrated clubs.
Prohibition
The federal Volstead Act, which was passed with new authority from the Eighteenth Amendment, put Prohibition into effect on January 16, 1920. It lasted for almost 14 years. After years of lobbying by the temperance movement (mainly by the Anti-Saloon League and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union), the states had passed laws forbidding the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages.
The first state to go entirely “dry” was Kansas in 1881. States that did not go dry were called “wet states”.
Temperance Movement
The temperance movement originated in the late 19th century as an effort to persuade moderation in consuming intoxicating liquors or abstinence. The movement was mostly filled by women who endured the effects of uncontrolled drinking by many of their spouses.
Actual temperance associations were established in Ohio, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts in the 1800’s. In the United States, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League rapidly gained exposure as union fought the government. The movement which started as a idealistic idea turn into an realistic strategy to make a political difference. In fact, they are widely known for getting many liquor laws passed partly thanks to backing from churches as well as industrialists who faced poor worker productivity and absenteeism.
The temperance movement gained fervor when the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified by Congress. However, the failure of Prohibition, which was repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment, caused the movement to lose steam in the in the early 1930’s.
18th Amendment
The Eighteenth Amendment passed on December 18, 1917 was a significant part of shaping the early 20th Century of the United States. With the prohibited manufacturing of liquor with the intent to sell, Congress was introduced to a bevy of other issues from that decision. The Prohibition Era came into form quickly as barroom owners across the United States tried to keep their doors open with the illicit serving of alcohol, thus allowing crime to form at a rapid pace. Once it was realized that banning liquor would not curve a person’s moral behavior, the amendment was later altered by the Twenty-first Amendment by Congress on February 20, 1933.[3]
Bootlegging
The term bootlegging came into use in the 1880s to symbolize the practice of concealing flasks of illegal liquor in boot tops. Bootlegging in the United States grew at an enormous rate during prohibition and was widespread in many social classes and cultures. Even though the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, the law was widely disobeyed by the public and even by government officers. The alcohol beverage industry grew by an enormous rate across the country and the bootlegger found themselves profiting by the millions. Bootlegging became an organized business by crime families and mobsters like Al Capone.
References
- ^ Felten, Eric."Speakeasies With a Twist." April 14, 2007. WSJ.com. 5 April 2010.
- ^ Sweeny, Caitlin. "Remains of Speakeasy found in Cyber Cafe parking lot" April 17, 2007. Pipe Dream : Binghamton University. 25 March 2010.
- ^ The Charters of Freedom. "Amendment XVIII." December 18, 1917. Constitution of the United States.
Bibliography
- Loretta Britten, Paul Mathless, ed. Our American Century Jazz Age: The 20’s. 1998. Time Life Books. New York: Bishop Books Inc., 1969. ISBN 0783555091
- Streissguth, Thomas. The Dry Years. The Roaring Twenties. Encyclopedia. 2007 ed. Facts On File, Inc. 2007. ISBN 0816064237
- Kahn, Gordon, and Al Hirschfeld. The Speakeasies of 1932. New York: Glenn Young Books, (1932, rev. 2003). ISBN 1-557-83518-7
- MacRae, David. The Americans at Home: Pen-and-Ink Sketches of American Men, Manners, and Institutions. Volume II. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. p. 315, 1870.ISBN 9781152746084
- Allen, Irving Lewis. The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech. New York, NY: Oxford University Press US, 1993. ISBN 0195092651
Links
- Lee, Jennifer 8. "Evoking the Era of the Harlem Speakeasy." December 5, 2008. The New York Times:City Room. 25 March 2010.
- Prohibition Repeal."Visit Prohibition-Era Speakeasies."The Repeal Prohibition. 25 March 2010.
- Galperina, Marina. "The Museum of the American Gangster Opens Doors of Former Speakeasy in March." February 19, 2010. Animal New York. 25 March 2010.