On January 1st, 1920, the legal prohibition of alcohol went into effect. Known as Prohibition, or the 18th Amendment, or the Volstead Act, it outlawed the production and sale alcohol to all Americans.
We are still living in the wake of this misbegotten social experiment.
To say that Prohibition failed is an understatement -- along with the Vietnam War, it's one of the most disastrous events in American history. Even though it was fully repealed in 1933 (via the 21st Amendment), Prohibition turned organized crime into the big business that lasts to this day. Suddenly, thanks to bootlegging, mid-level gangsters were multi-millionaires (like Brooklyn-born Al Capone), the tentacles of organized crime invaded every neighborhood in NYC and America, it infiltrated and corrupted government at the local, state and federal level, it turned America upside-down, and Americans on themselves.
Popular culture was also deeply impacted -- The Great Gatsby and The Godfather Saga were inspired, in part, by the culture and legacy of Prohibition. Movies like The Roaring Twenties and The Untouchables, plus TV shows like Boardwalk Empire, are all about Prohibition. More broadly, they are about how American life was corrupted, and continues to be, by this massive mistake.
Here in NYC, New Year's Eve 1919 was one a huge party as people got in their last (they thought) legal drinks. Times Square, in particular, was a hopping place. Naturally, once 1920 hit, speakeasies began popping up all over the city. People (like my own grandfather) learned how to make their own bathtub gin.
Like Vietnam, like Trump, Prohibition wouldn't be the last time Americans got together to make a huge, decades-ruining mistake.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep it civil, intelligent, and expletive-free. Otherwise, opine away.