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Speakeasy bars in the United States date back to at least the 1880s, but came into prominence in the United States during the Prohibition era (1920–1933, longer in some states). During that time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation ( bootlegging ) of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States, due to the Eighteenth ...
The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. [1] The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and Prohibition was formally introduced nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919.
Rum-running, or bootlegging, is the illegal business of smuggling alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. The term rum-running is more commonly applied to smuggling over water; bootlegging is applied to smuggling over land. Smuggling usually takes place to circumvent taxation or prohibition laws within a particular ...
Many citizens were sympathetic to bootleggers, and respectable citizens were lured by the romance of illegal speakeasies, also called "blind tigers." The loosening of social mores during the 1920s included popularizing the cocktail and the cocktail party among higher socioeconomic groups. Those inclined to help authorities were often ...
It gained prominence no doubt in part due to Prohibition's crackdown on alcohol, so while liquor bootleggers and speakeasies were under close legal scrutiny, cannabis clubs in major cities, or ...
Organized-crime syndicates became skilled at bribing police and politicians to overlook violations of Prohibition during the 1920s. Chicago's Al Capone emerged as the most notorious example, earning an estimated $60 million annually from his bootlegging and speakeasy operations. Gambling and prostitution also reached new heights, and a growing ...
By the fact of their existence, these speakeasies were defying the law, and formed intimate business relationships with the bootleggers and gangsters that traded in illicit alcohol. However, many of the leaders of the prohibition movement were also the most prominent voices in black American equality and civil rights. [ 56 ]
The Volstead Act of 1920 defined intoxicating liquor as any liquor containing more than 0.5% alcohol. It permitted the manufacture of non-intoxicating cider and fruit juices for home use, as well as permitting households to ferment wine for private consumption; and it allowed the sale of alcoholic beverages for medicinal, sacramental, and ...