Thank you Utah.
On this date in 1933 Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, ending prohibition. The thirteen year experiment in government enforced sobriety was overturned by popular demand.
Just kidding, politicians seeking alcohol tax dollars during the depression is what really kickstarted the repeal movement. That, the wood alcohol induced blindness, and rampant organized criminal activity.
But that didn’t mean Dallas went dry during prohibition.
Mr. Payne said the city was filled with bootleggers, speak-easies and dance halls during the 1920s and early 1930s.
A 1926 survey found by Mr. Payne indicated bootleggers in the city were making as much as $36,000 a year.
I’m thinking $36K a year in 1926 was a pretty good bit of scratch. Probably more than a Dallas County Sheriff took home. But how many bootleggers get to engage in public shenanigans:
As historians tell the tale, local officials were inflamed after a writer for Collier’s magazine alleged that bootleggers paid local law enforcement a monthly fee to ignore their activities.
In reaction to the article, Dallas County Sheriff Hal Hood conducted a series of raids and took more than 5,000 gallons of confiscated alcohol to a public rally hosted by a temperance movement in downtown Dallas.
During the rally, deputies poured out all the liquor so it could drain into the gutters. But someone flicked a lit match into the stream, and the liquor ignited into a massive sea of moving fire.
By the time firefighters arrived, more than 20 cars had been consumed by flames and nearby buildings only narrowly escaped a similar fate.
Celebrate prohibition’s repeal with some alcohol-fueled shenanigans of your own tonight.
What happened to you Utah? You used to be cool.
Posted by Baron Von Ottomatic
