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

Prohibition Glassware Etiquette

This beer glass flair seems to represent the only outstanding novelty in the Christmas trade. The fancier stores have devoted their purchasing attention to this department to the exclusion of all others which probably provides a commentary on current modes, manners and thought.
“The Prohibition Era began in 1920 when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, went into effect with the passage of the Volstead Act. Despite the new legislation, Prohibition was difficult to enforce. The increase of the illegal production and sale of liquor (known as “bootlegging”), the proliferation of speakeasies (illegal drinking spots) and the accompanying rise in gang violence and organized crime led to waning support for Prohibition by the end of the 1920s. In early 1933, Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, ending Prohibition.” -History.com

The Trend In Gifts, Manners and Modes of 1932

IN THE PRE-PROHIBITION days, the old saw about the man with the beer salary and the champagne appetite, had a point that appears to have been lost in the dry years. Certainly, the lowly juice of the malt that was once content to rest in a growler or a thick-bottomed glass mug wouldn't be able to understand what this old world has come to, were it to return to earth by grace of Congress, I took a turn around the stores last week and discovered that most of them had well equipped bars featuring glasses for beer and that the majority of the novelty sales were taking place in these nooks. And what beer glasses! 

Ornate tumblers in many colors and styles, representative of the highest art of the glass blowers, objects of art that made the once swagger steins look tawdry and cheap by contrast. And the prices being asked! Some of us old-timers gathered around one synthetic bar and reminisced on the situation and it was the consensus that time was when a barrel of beer could have been purchased for the price of two of the 1932 serving glasses, Curiously enough, this beer glass flair seems to represent the only outstanding novelty in the Christmas trade. The fancier stores have devoted their purchasing attention to this department to the exclusion of all others which probably provides a commentary on current modes, manners and thought. 

It was something of a contrast to leave these emporiums and go ont to the auction rooms where the Hill Smith treasures were being sold to the elite of San Francisco and the pick of the dealers. Those who had the good fortune to be Smith guests up Rio Vista way before the crash, remember well the fine dining room equipment. The Smith collection of glassware and coffee cups was noted throughout the district. Few were able to set a table more complete in detail. Yet the collection brought virtually nothing on the auction block. 

I saw handsome gold spun coffee cups, masterpieces of the art of china decoration, that cost as much as $40 apiece, go for $2. Oriental rugs that retailed at $6500. having difficulty reaching a $300. mark and imported furnishings selling for a song. I think the chief lesson to be learned from the auction rooms is not that there is a dearth of money in the community but that we have learned to become hard bargainers and our Yankee thrift is finally finding its way to the surface.– Oakland Tribune, December, 1932

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

An Improper Formal Dinner Course

The term “fruit cup” denoted a type of “fruit cocktail” which was chopped fruits amidst the occasional maraschino cherry, served in a thick, sweet syrup. Special orange cups or fruit holders, like these which were developed in the gilded age, made oranges enticing and eating the fresh fruit elegant. These antiques would have been a welcome and refreshing change to the 1960’s formal table, as a break from that ‘ubiquitous fruit cup.’

“No Fruit Cup!”

“Avoid anything sweet for the beginning of a menu. If you serve fruit, serve it in its natural state, such as a melon with a wedge of lime or lemon, or a grapefruit cut in half. One of the famous banquet menu-makers in this country says that the ‘ubiquitous fruit cup’ is badly placed on American menus as a beginning course and should appear only at the end of a meal, ‘its normal place.’ Out of his experience he added that the custom of fruit cup came in during Prohibition, as a substitute for cocktails, frequently ‘bathed in a pink sweet liquid vaguely reminiscent of liquor, and the custom continued after repeal.’ — Helen Sprackling, 1960

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