The Volstead Act
January 17, 1920 that was the day the Volstead Act (the 18th Amendment) went into effect. Like ObamaCare, that wasn’t the official name of the National Prohibition Act. It was nicknamed after Andrew Volstead a Congressman from Minnesota who introduced the bill.
I’m going through a few books and recreating some Prohibition era cocktails and mixed drinks. Here’s what I’ve got on tap, if there’s a link it’s got an article attached.
- Bacardi
- The Bee’s Knees
- Black Velvet
- Bloody Mary
- Brandy Flip
- Bronx
- Brooklyn
- Brown Derby Cocktail
- Champagne Cocktail
- Cocoanut Grove Cocktail
- Corpse Reviver #2
- Cuba Libre
- Daiquiri
- Death in the Afternoon Cocktail
- Death in a Gulf Stream
- El Presidente
- French 75
- Gimlet
- Gin Rickey
- Gibson Cocktail
- Greta Garbo
- Highball
- Jack Rose
- Manhattan
- Martini
- Dirty Martini
- Rum Martini aka Jean Harlow
- Mary Pickford
- Mimosa
- Mint Julep
- The Monkey Gland
- Negroni
- Old Fashioned
- Orange Blossom
- Pimm’s Cup
- Rob Roy
- Royal Fizz
- Sazerac
- Scofflaw
- Sidecar
- Stubby Collins
- Tom Collins
- Twelve Mile Limit
- Ward Eight
- Whiskey Sour
- Yale
Some of these I’ve had before, but I still need to go off the Prohibition era recipe, take a picture and write about it. I could cheat and steal pictures off the internet but where’s the fun in that?! This is just an excuse to drink.
If you’re interested in the reading about The Prohibition
You’re in luck! There’s a ton of books on the subject, both fictional and non-fiction. The Great Gatsby being the most famous non-fiction.
But here’s some books I recommend (full disclosure, we get a small percentage if you buy using that link):
Last Call by Daniel Okrent is excellent. He covers all the bases, pre-prohibition politics where Women’s Suffragists fought for the ban of alcohol alongside Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was for racist reasons, Catholic and Jewish immigrants were coming into the country and they had wine as a sacrament, it was viewed as anti-american to be pro-alcohol to the KKK apparently. The women’s suffragists had better reasons, men were getting drunk and spending all the families money, coming home and beating their wives. This was before women could get a job. You can understand why they were anti-booze. Boardwalk Empire does a great job showing this.
And with the wine being a holy sacrament, Okrent talks about a whole lot of people applying to be priests and rabbis during the days of Volstead.
He also talks about how medicinal booze was a thing back then, even Al Capone had a few pharmacists on his payroll. Even my Great-Grandfather Ciro Barone sold “Imported Italian Olive Oil” during Prohibition out of his pharmacy in Fitchburg Massachusetts in the 1920s.
Washington was one of the wettest towns in America, and if you went to the White House during the Harding Administration you’d have no problem getting a glass full of hooch. Even Herbert Hoover would go to the Belgian Embassy to get a drink, which was technically not on American soil.
Another great book is Rothstein by David Pietrusza. He said in the foreward that he was looking for something to write about in the 1920s. But what do you talk about? Baseball in the 20s? New York? Politics? Prohibition? Crime? Business? Well everytime he started researching a topic the same guy popped up, A.R. The Brain had his finger in everything legal or illicit you can imagine. This book talks about that, it’s a very interesting read.
Prohibition Cocktails
Prohibition was such an immense failure in so many ways. During Volstead, Crime went up, people drank a lot more, and it was the Golden Age of the Cocktail. Partly because people had to mask how terrible the hooch was by adding ingredients.
Contraband Cocktails by Paul Dickson has a ton of recipes (that I’m recreating) as well as great stories like the man in the green hat who kept Congress wet.
