Prohibition Etiquette Humor

From 1920 through 1933, there was a period of “Prohibition” in the United States. During this period, the production, the sale or transportation and even the import of alcohol was banned. There were a few loopholes in the law, but the illegal production and sale of alcohol became a way of making many “bootleggers” wealthy and was at the same time highly competitive and dangerous.

Don’ts for Today

“Books of etiquette, like other works of reference, must be kept up-to-date,” said “Boss” Murphy at a New York luncheon.

“Our 1921 books of etiquette, for example, should have several up-to-date items such as:

• “Don't lick the pieces at launchings.”

• “Don't, when a hooch sleuth comes to search your house, produce a pint of the real stuff – produce a quart.” — Chico Record, 1921

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Enjoying Faux-Champagne Taste

“If you must drink with repeal, here’s how!” – A lovely friend, Lorrie, found this news clipping in with her late-mother’s belongings. The Repeal of Prohibition in the United States was official on December 5, 1933. If during those long, supposedly dry years of Prohibition you had forgotten the proper etiquette for serving a variety of alcoholic beverages, or had never learned how in the first place due to your youth, this handy guide was available to help. – Image source, @dish_diva on Instagram

 “Wise” New York of 1926

Professedly worldly-wise residents of New York have been paying from $15 to $80 a quart for a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and cheap wine, according to an exposure which is carried on the first page of the New York World. In the belief that champagne is the only drink which has defied the bootlegging chemists, habitues of the night clubs have spent huge sums to make wealthy a crew that works in the cellars of Mulberry street turning out a very cheap imitation, “From the moment the short, eagle-beaked wine master, imported from Bordeaux to a cellar In the Bronx, dips his finger into his mixture pf bicarbonate of soda and Mulberry street wine, tastes it, and finds it good or good enough – until it passes down the throat of the salve night club patron,” says the World, “but a few days have intervened.”

The stuff must be sold quick or the cork would not pop and the bubbles would have disappeared. The sophisticates pay $30 a bottle for pop and bubble done up with a French label and dated 1911. “At least four cellar plants,” continues the World in its exposure, “protected by heavy steel doors and the apparent indifference of the authorities, are producing champagne.” There may well be more. The four alone have a capacity production of 550,000 gallons a year, or half again as much as was imported from France before prohibition. – The Tribune, 1926

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia