Mobtown Lives Up to Its Name

Picture of a store in Baltimore before the Volstead Act came into effect. From The Maryland Historical Society

The semester has come to a close and so has my blog. I regret to say that my scanner isn't working so this entry will not have some of the visuals that I wanted to include


It wouldn't be a blog about Baltimore's History without talking about some kind of riot. From some New York Times articles I was able to find reports of mobs and riots during Prohibition. Surprisingly, they both took place well into the Prohibition age, meaning that these riots weren't in reaction to the new legislation. There very well could have been, but I never came across any documentation.

The first article is from March 20, 1927. The headline reads:

MOB IN BALTIMORE ATTACKS DRY AGENTS
Crowd of 500 Wields Axes on Autos and Hurls Bricks at 16 Federal Men on Raid

The article reports that while prohibition agents were conducting a raid in South Baltimore, a mob of 500 people descended on their cars. There were few casualties and no arrests. Only three agents were struck- two by stones and one by... a jar of mayonnaise which "broke and injured chiefly his personal appearance."

The other riot happened in May 5, 1923, but there was no mayonnaise involved. The title reads:

BEER RIOT IN BALTIMORE
Mob Menaces Dry Agents Attempting to Seize Two Trucks- One Escapes

An excited crowd of more than 1,000 people shouted threats of violence to three prohibition enforcement agents who were "engaged in interrupting the transfer of more than 200 cases of real beer from a freight car at a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad warehouse to two trucks," but were forced to permit the escape of one of the trucks. They poured out the bottles that they did confiscate from the other trucks.

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"MOB IN BALTIMORE ATTACKS DRY AGENTS"New York Times(1857-Current file); Mar 20, 1927, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The NEw York Times (1851-2006) pg. 20.

"BEER RIOT IN BALTIMORE" New York Times (1857-Current file); May 5, 1923; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 13

Photo courtesy: The Maryland Historical Society "Prohibition-1922" Z24.47.VF

The lastest issue of Baltimore Magazine (December 2009) highlights the 25 best bars in the area. Included is The Owl Bar located inside the Belvedere Hotel in Mt. Vernon. The magazine doesn't go too in depth with the bar's history of about 100 years, but they do explain something about the bar when it was operating as a speakeasy. The bar had an owl "whose eyes would flash during Prohibition to alert drinkers of a police raid."


Upon further investigation, I went to their website and read about their history. As the story goes,

The Owl Bar became a hugely popular stop for travelers, especially those going by train from New York to Miami. They would stop in Baltimore, spend a few days at the Belvedere, and visit the Wise Old Owl. The key was knowing exactly when the illegal products and services were available and how to behave to avoid getting caught. That's where the wisdom of the owl came to the rescue and quenched the thirst. He imparted an encoded message that was clear to all of the in-the-know regulars. "The wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he saw, the less he spoke the less he spoke, the more he heard."

For more on travelers and the Belvedere Hotel during the 20's, see my post from December 3, 2009

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"Baltimore's Best Bars," Baltimore Magazine, vol. 102, no. 12,(December 2009): 158.

"History,' The Owl Bar, http://www.theowlbar.com/index2.php#/info3/2/ (accessed December 12, 2009).

Prohibition Ended 76 Years Ago TODAY

December 5, 1933
Happy Repeal Day!

If you were a member of the Anti-Saloon League in Baltimore or maybe you were just pro-Prohibition, chances are you were at The Lyric on January 25, 1919 (when Prohibition was just about a week old.) In Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, Eric Mills describes the event as “packed to the rafters.” The Opera house’s main floor was filled with a “huge, boisterous crowd” that almost filled the boxes and gallery seats as well as additional seating set up right on stage.

The Drys had about as much fun as you can imagine with only the rush of victory to intoxicate them. The Monument Street Methodist Episcopal Church bible class, which was hundreds of people, sang “a stirring rendition of ‘Good-bye Forever, Saloon!” The Superintendent of the Anti- Saloon League, Dr. George W. Crabbe ridiculed the members of the Maryland State Legislature who had opposed Prohibition and with that he was met with shouts of “No! No!” and “Put ‘em out!” from the audience. But the main attraction was none other than America’s “chief booze cop,” or rather the United States Prohibition Commissioner, John F. Kramer. He invoked the “church spirit” by encouraging the audience to “wade in the fight” to help enforce the new law of the land.


While the Drys were convinced that those who drank were immoral and uncontrolled, the Wets were convinced that their counterparts were lunatics and religious fanatics. It’s hard to pick which side was crazier because according to Dr. Harry Goldsmith, the whole city's population was going insane. He said in the New York Times, “the insane population in this city had almost doubled since 1910. The increase amounted to 90 per cent, while the general population grew only to 36 per cent.” Goldsmith also emphasized that Prohibition was one of the chief causes of increased mental disorders. One out of every nine mental cases he handled could be traced to Prohibition.

(example of a liquor prescription from Sparrows Point)

If you were lucky, however, you could get a prescription for liquor. This loophole obviously had some problems. According to Mills, by the end of March 1920, “the entire Maryland-D.C. supply of seventy thousand whiskey prescription blanks had been exhausted.” And the ills, not surprisingly, always seemed to manifest themselves around the weekends and the holidays. Within about a year, beer was for the first time permitted for prescription by physicians from a ruling by the Department of Justice. This decision came after some “pressing” by several Baltimore breweries to Prohibition Commissioner Richard S. Dodson. They requested their right to manufacture beer with “a kick” to be supplied for physicians prescriptions and Dodson sent those requests to Washington only days before it was approved.

If you weren't fortunate enough to get a prescription for liquor or beer or if you could, but it was too expensive, then perhaps you could consider making your own homebrew or moonshine. There was a booming business for bootleggers, but you could do it on your own. The only problem was ignorance, miscalculation or downright stupidity could prove fatal in moonshining. A Delmarva man was brought up on drunken-and-disorderly charges in September 1920 because he had gone wild on his own homemade blend of various fruits, fruit skins, brown sugar--- and gasoline.


(click for a clearer look at this comic about homebrew from Nov. 20, 1919)

In the article “Weird Concoctions Used in South to Satisfy Liquor Cravings,” the author got the scoop at the Belvedere Hotel where he met some travelers from the South who had been under prohibition laws longer. He learned of a druggist’s shoe polish supply being completely diminished after some soldiers got their hands on it. Apparently they were getting drunk off the stuff.

This was related to a lumber salesman who was at a drug-store fountain where he watched a man purchase a soda, drink half of it, then go to the prescription clerk and ask for cologne. He purchased it and then dumped it into his cup and drank it.

There were plenty more of these stories, but they are merely child’s play. There was an art to homebrew and many took it very seriously. As I’ve mentioned before, H.L. Mencken was a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages and loved having the reputation as such. He once boasted that he was “the first man south of the Mason-Dixon line to brew a drinkable home brew.” Mencken started a movement of homebrewmasters who learned their trade through letters. Mencken would share his method to ten pupils and the idea was to get those ten pupils to take on ten pupils of their on and so on and so on.

Mencken was also known to have an extensive cellar in his house. This was a trend during Prohibition because there was a run on the liquor stores before the law went into effect. Everyone wanted to stock up and so long as they had it before Prohibition, they could not be penalized for having it in their home. There were consequences, however. The New York Times reported that in Baltimore, rents rose in response to the demand for liquor storage facilities.

Prohibition is to blame in Baltimore for 100 or more per cent increase in the rental price of cellars. Some time ago, when the great drought began to loom over the land, men of means began to lay to stocks of liquors and, having accumulated them, many chose the storage warehouses in which to place their supplies. They thought they had found a safe place for their stocks for years to come, but the Collector of Internal Revenue has dispelled their illusion.

Here we saw that just as people thought they were safe to enjoy a wine from their cellar, the IRS came wanting their share.

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Eric Mills, Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties(Centreville: Tidewater Publishers, 2000) 22, 33, 46, 41.

Bud Johns, The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken (San Francisco: Synergistic Press, 1968) 11.

“SEES INSANITY INCREASING” New York Times (1857-Current file);Jul 13 1925; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 8.

“BEER FOR MEDICINE GETS AID OF PALMER” New York Times (1857-Current file);Mar 9, 1921; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 14.

“WEIRD CONCOCTIONS USED IN SOUTH TO SATISFY LIQUOR CRAVING” The Sun (1837-1985); Aug 17, 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985) pg. 13.

“BALTIMORE’S CELLAR BOOM” New York Times (1857-Current file);Dec 8, 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2006) pg. 4.

Photos:
“Other 10—No Title” The Sun (1837-1985); Jan 26, 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985) pg.10.

“American Medicinal Spirits Company” Bottle Books, http://www.bottlebooks.com/american%20medicinal%20spirits%20company/american_medicinal_spirits_compa.htm (accessed December 3, 2009).

“Comic 1 – No Title” The Sun (1837-1985); Nov 20 1919; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985) pg.12.

Bud Johns, The Ombibulous Mr. Mencken (San Francisco: Synergistic Press, 1968) 51.

"The Prohibition Blues" and Baltimore's Growing Dope Problem

I've been interested in finding out something about the Baltimore-raised singer and bandleader, Cab Calloway, during Prohibition. Unfortunately, I haven't discovered anything along the lines of what I had in mind. Of course, the Jazz Age took place simultaneously with the Prohibition era so one would think it wouldn't be so hard. Well, I did find a song that he recorded called "The Prohibition Blues" and it is featured at the beginning of this Betty Boop cartoon, which is one of my favorites. I found a website that talks about the cartoon:

The cartoon begins with actual film footage of Cab Calloway dancing a slow and sensuous dance in front of his orchestra, the former Missourians, while they perform the Prohibition Blues. This is the oldest known film footage of Cab. His attire is uncharacteristically casual, and we never get a good look at his face. We suspect that Cab wasn't aware that the Fleischers were going to use the actual footage. Cab was well-known for his love of good clothes and his high standards for professional dress...

The haunting and beautiful instrumental, Prohibition Blues, is an old Missourians piece that was recorded by them in early 1930, right before Cab took over as leader of their band. This cartoon has the only recording of the piece with Cab Calloway. By early 1932, when this cartoon was produced, the group had been renamed "Cab Calloway and His Orchestra," but in this film, they are still wearing their old Missourians uniforms. We can see the drummer, Leroy Maxey, playing with his drumsticks in the background.

I highly recommend watching this cartoon! I think the animation is pretty fantastic (and kind of disturbing) in the cave scene towards the end. One part to note is the three skeletons standing at a bar at about 4:40. As they sing their Ho-De-Ho-De-Ho's, they drink bottles (presumably alcohol) from a bar and then collapse to the floor and then their ghosts rise up.

Unfortunately "The Prohibition Blues" has no lyrics, but it got me thinking... Cab Calloway did a song called "The Reefer Man" and I wondered if maybe I was searching in the wrong direction when it came to Cab and Prohibition.

Regrettably, I lost the main article that I would use for my next argument, which is that the use of "dope" increased during Prohibition. But I did find some other articles that cover that topic. Now, it has to be clear what "dope" is exactly, especially in the 1920's, which is why I consulted The Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang. According to the website, dope is drugs, especially cocaine or opium. Well, now that that's settled, on with my research.

In the article, "GROWTH OF THE DOPE HABIT ALARMS OFFICIALS," the Afro-American reported of some dope peddlers, two men and two women, getting arrested. The article stated, "According to officers, the illegal trade in narcotics is becoming more and more in evidence among colored people and the majority of the arrests being made are among this group."

Also from Afro-American, a piece called "The Evil of Narcotics" said

It used to be said that prohibition would drive all the old soaks to the use of opium, but statistics show that while there has been an increase in the number of habitues a large percentage of them are young boys and girls under twenty who could not have been long addicted to whiskey habit if at all.

Here we see that rather than using opiates as a last resort for not having booze, it started to become the first thing young people looked for. I think it is worth investigating- the rise of drug use in Baltimore city starting with Prohibition.

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Megaera and Brenna Lorenz, "Betty Boop in Minnie the Moocher", http://www.heptune.com/minnbett.html

"GROWTH OF THE DOPE HABIT ALARMS OFFICIALS" Afro-American (1893-1988), September 21, 1923, ProQuest Historical Newspapers Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) pg. 7.

"The Evil of Narcotics"Afro-American (1893-1988), January 10, 1925, ProQuest Historical Newspapers Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) pg. 16.

Finding Drinking Joints

Although near-beer saloons were legal during Prohibition, real beer and liquor were something you had to either get from a bootlegger or at a speakeasy. The Baltimore Sun reported a federal agent's claim that "for every saloon closed...two speakeasies open." Speakeasies were harder to raid, as Eric Mills, writer of Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, explains because "you had to either be known or know someone to get in."

The so-called Noble Experiment that was Prohibition had many opponents and Maryland Senator, the Hon. W.M. Cabell Bruce, was one of them. Bruce explained in a speech delivered in Washington D.C. in 1924 that "the bootlegger has acquired almost the legitimate standing of the butcher at the green grocer." In a separate speech on the same topic, he explained that the legal consequences of a bootlegger getting caught was simply

"regarded by the bootlegger and other violators of the Volstead Act as more occupational hazards... They calculate their chances of incurring them as a marine insurer calculates the chances of a shipwreck in fixing the premium under a marine policy."

Bruce went on to say that if there was any well-to-do man who used to drink whiskey or wine before the Volstead Act and is not using it today, "he is not known to me."

Crime statistics agreed with what Bruce said. Whereas Prohibition was expected to decrease alcoholism in the country, it actually steadily increased according to police statistics compiled by the Baltimore Sun.

Amount of Arrests for Drunkenness in Baltimore
1920. . . . . . . . . . . 1,785
1921. . . . . . . . . . . 3,258
1922. . . . . . . . . . . 4,955
1923. . . . . . . . . . . 5,631

Crackdowns aside, drinking joints abounded in Baltimore. Eric Mills lists some places where people would go to get drinks:
John C.Murder's saloon at 4536 Harford Rd
Jerry Bee's saloon at 2000 West Lanvale St
the Iola Athletic and Pleasure Club at 109 Parkin St
the Hotel Leland bar at 1610 Pennsylvania Ave.
the Biddle Street saloon
the Laurens Street saloon
Seymour's Mulberry Street watering hole
Nixon's Cafe,
the black saloon at the corner of Gough and Dallas Streets
The Diamond Cafe at 311 West Franklin
Ivory Booker's beer hall at 15 North Frederick
Maurice Finn and Charlie Mitchell's place at 3 North Frederick
Eddie Vaeth's saloon at 300 Light St
the Lithuanian Hall at Hollins and Parkin

Baltimore was a traditionally a big beer town, robustly so, with its strong German and Irish influences and a renowned zest for steamed crab consumption. So it would make sense that in Baltimore, a red crab in the window of a restaurant meant "saloon in the backroom. A sign advertising "seafood" meant likewise.

Another option besides the bootlegger and the saloon was making your own or home brew. This started to become very popular and Baltimore writer, H.L. Mencken, claimed that he was the first to successfully make a drinkable home brew. He didn't keep his recipe to himself either- He was known to send it to whoever asked. There is more to be said about the concoctions that people made out of desperation during Prohibition, but I will leave that to another blog post.

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The Hon. W.M. Cabell Bruce, THREE ADDRESSES ON PROHIBITION, Reference book The Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore Maryland Md.XHV5089.B69
Eric Mills, Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties, (Centreville: Tidewater Publishers, 2000)

Methodists versus Soldiers during Prohibition

(click on pictures to make them bigger)


As I was reading articles from the New York times about Baltimore during Prohibition, I came across many with the subject of Methodists who were pro-Prohibition. The above image is an ad from The New York Times on November 7, 1926. Judging from the ad, one could expect some anti-Methodist attitudes. Although the Methodists seemed to be staunchly against liquor, I came across articles with statements from priests and other figures from different churches who were actually against Prohibition, which seems contradictory to what is expected. They claimed that they were against alcohol to excess, but the complete elimination of it could be just as dangerous.

Another article I found interesting was of a raid at a Methodist church where some soldiers were having dinner prepared for them by the women's auxillaries. Upon making dinner for the veterans, they found illegal alcoholic substances and they called the prohibition agents. The agents came and seized the place and had the veterans arrested. One of the men arrested made a statement saying "One of these Christian women... told me when the raid was made that I ought to be ashamed of myself, an ex-soldier, for allowing such conditions at the Home. I told her that she certainly had a nice way of showing her appreciation of the boys who fought for her in France by calling the prohibition agents."

It is fascinating to think of the timing of Prohibition- in between wars, before the Depression. If there was ever a time to drink, it was probably the twenties. The soldiers especially had reason to drink and were even moved to march for "Wets." On June 3, 1919, there was a parade of 25,000 people including "Soldiers and women in automobiles." Their banners displayed "Our legislators drink wet, talk wet, and vote dry." 100,000 people lined their route and watched in the 94 degree heat. All bars were closed during the afternoon in response to a request from the Anti-Saloon League. Labor union men from New York came down to see the demonstration and said they would plan a similar demonstration in New York. i came across no pictures from the event, but I think it is worth doing a little more digging to find some.

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"Display Ad 85 - No Title" New York Times, 7 November 1926, pg.BR36. Database on-line. Available from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1831-2006)

"RAID FOLLOWS WOMEN'S TIP" New York Times, 11 November 1923, pg. S6. Database on-line. Available from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1831-2006)

"25,000 PARADE FOR "WETS." New York Times, 3 June 1919, pg.28. Database on-line. Available from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1831-2006)