What is a Speakeasy?
What's a Speakeasy?
Have you ever heard of a Speakeasy? A speakeasy is a hidden bar. Speakeasies started to be made in the winter of 1918. This was when the era of the Prohibition began. Speakeasies were to hide from police because drinking of any kind was unlawful at the time. Speakeasies were a response to the Prohibition.
What was the Prohibition law? The Prohibition law started on November 18th, 1918. The government wanted to reduce the manufacturing and drinking of beer and alcoholic beverages. This law made and any transportation of it illegal. This became the 18th amendment. The 18th amendment stated (From the constitution) “After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.” The reason why drinking alcohol was illegal is because they wanted to reduce crime and corruption.
What would you see in a speakeasy? In a speakeasy it looks like a regular bar. But the thing that made it a speakeasy was how it was hidden. You could walk into a barbershop and they could have moving bookshelfs like the things you see in movies! They would have watchouts or a “bouncer”. This person’s job was to to tell the bartender to change the bookshelf because if the police were nearby.
Jazz started to become popular because it matched what people had felt when the Prohibition had began. The clothing that men wore was a nice business suit. Women wore flapper dresses. Most people think of the 1920’s as one of the best times in American history because jazz had just started and also people started to make different kinds of clothing instead of a long dress.
Did the Prohibition law work? The answer is no. (According to Cato Institute) It subsequently increased. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became “organized”; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant. No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition.
In the end, the Prohibition law did not work. People outsmarted the police and the government. Jazz became popular with the time era, so did the fashion. There are still speakeasies in Kansas and New York, here are some links that you could find more information or you could find a place to go eat.
https://www.thrillist.com/drink/los-angeles/culver-city/la-secret-bars-hidden-entrance
https://www.thrillist.com/drink/chicago/how-to-get-into-secret-bars-in-chicago
http://fox4kc.com/2012/02/29/a-look-at-kcs-prohibition-era-past/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100751269
http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/alcohol-prohibition-was-failure
