Pictures of Entire Exhibit

Thesis/Historical Argument

As public drinking culture changed with the ratification of the 18th Amendment, coupled with the rise of organized crime, speakeasies provided a secure environment for women and female impersonators to break social and gender barriers.

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“In 1830, Americans over age 15 were drinking the equivalent of seven gallons of pure alcohol each year -- about four shots a day… and from 1870 to 1900, the number of saloons nationwide rose to 300,000 from 100,000.” (Rothstein 2012)

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Wartime Prohibition was enacted “to save grain for producing food,” and many states enacted dry laws. (“Prohibition” 2020)

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“In 1869, within Harlem’s Hamilton Lodge, drag balls began.” (Stabbe, 2019)

“A moral reform organization known as the Committee of Fourteen periodically investigated the balls. In 1916, the committee released a report detailing the scandalous behavior they witnessed. The report described a scene filled with "phenomenal" "male perverts" in expensive frocks and wigs, looking like women.” (Stabbe, 2019)

Despite hostility and stigma against the LGBTQ community, drag balls became a safe place for gay men to congregate.

After the 18th Amendment was passed, social classes were forced together, thus introducing drag queens to mainstream society.

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Harlem Nightclub Dancers. (Siskind 1937)

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“Saloons often fostered a sense of group autonomy and presented workers... with the opportunity to affirm their manliness.”

(Dennison 2006, 26)

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The long, skinny structure of saloons forced people to withdraw from the bar and circumambulate so others could order, creating a group culture.

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“Men went to saloons to talk as much as to get drunk… the saloons were the focal points of the neighborhood indignation at the powers that be, hothouses of political discontent.” (Owen 1933)

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“only men were in the place, of course--except that women with no reputation to lose might use the shut-off back room, if they arrived by the family entrance” (Brock 1934)

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Men Enjoy a Drink, Prior to Prohibition (John Binder Collection)

Saloon 272, Bleecker Street, New York City, 1916. Compiled by Dr. Adam Blahut (2014)

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Beginning

The Mafia, already experienced in running illegal venues, saw there was a profit to be made with the passing of the 18th Amendment.

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People went to speakeasies motivated for alcohol provided by the mob, and the social activity followed. In these inconspicuous venues, previously marginalized groups found a footing in popular culture.

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18TH AMENDMENT (January 16, 1919)

“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.”

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“...someone had to step in to fuel the substantial thirst of the Roaring Twenties. And no one was better equipped than the mobsters” (Roos 2019).

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There were 32,000 speakeasies in NYC alone (“Enright Tells Plans” 1929).

“This organized form of criminal activity is probably more deeply rooted in the social and political order than is generally recognized” (Chamberlin 1932, 3).

“The underworld, as I am using the term, lives by performing the services which convention may condemn and the law prohibit, but which, nevertheless, human appetites crave… It is the creature of our laws and conventions, and it is entangled with our strongest appetites and our most cherished ideals” (Lippmann 1931b, 5).

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Organized Crime

“The high level of lawlessness is maintained by the fact that Americans desire to do so many things which they also desire to prohibit” (Lippmann 1931a, 67).

“From the underworld he, or at least many friends whom he respects, obtain their liquor. He knows this. But he does not allow himself to dwell too much on the knowledge that the cocktail comes from the bootlegger who operates under the jurisdiction of a criminal magnate, and that before the cocktail could be drunk, the Constitution and the laws had to be broken, public officials had to be deceived or corrupted, and some murders may have had to be committed” (Lippmann 1931a, 66).

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Organized Crime

“We knew we could sell more whiskey than we’d ever be able to get our hands on if Prohibition lasted a hundred years” (Charles Luciano, qtd. Gosch and Hammer 2013).

“Chicago Vice” (The New York Times).

“Reports Alcohol Price Rise” (The New York Times).

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Birger Gang, about 1924 (“Bootlegging”).

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“The parties were bigger...the pace was faster...and the morals were looser.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

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As public drinking culture changed with the ratification of the 18th Amendment, coupled with the rise of organized crime, speakeasies provided a secure environment for women and female impersonators to break social and gender barriers.

“the free lunch is gone and so is the nickel beer. in their place came first the ladies, then soft lights, bottled beer, and cocktails”

(Viorst 1955)

“The old custom of standing at the bar and downing glasses of beer or highballs gave way to sitting in a quiet and curtained dining room and consuming hard liquor at leisure”

(Owen 1933)

When Prohibition closed saloons, the masculine identity tied to these establishments disappeared.

With the perceived scarcity of alcohol, people’s goal was to consume alcohol, making socialization (and prejudice) secondary.

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New Drinking Culture

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New Drinking Culture

“In many New York speakeasies rich people and ordinary folks, men and women all rubbed shoulders. They had two goals in common—getting their hands on the best illegal liquor around, and avoiding a ride to the police station in a paddy wagon.” (Moos 2005)

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Speakeasy-owners required small groups to ensure secrecy and maintain the facade, often a restaurant, making small, mixed group activity the norm.

“booze was a diversion, an incident, a five-o’clock relaxation. . . . [They] took one drink, two drinks, half a dozen drinks and went on [their] way.” (Blythe qtd. in “Raising the Bar” 2014, 115)

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New Drinking Culture

The Union Oyster House. Compiled by Adam Blahut (2014)

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Speakeasies re-designed their spaces to feature private tables, which dissolved the large masculine group culture.

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Compiled by Dr. Adam Blahut (2014)

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Saloon structure enforced group socialization that barred outsiders from being included.

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Before

After

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Women

Drinking in speakeasies established a comfortable environment for women: men could not use tradition to exclude them.

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"we like women customer’ said an old-time barkeep ‘they won't let their men drink too much. We don't want customers to get drunk. We want them to come back."

(“Doors of NY Speakeasies” 1933)

"treating: it was the habit, that in bars or clubs - in most cases - men invited women for drinks or the cover fee and so on"

(Reinsch 2012)

“prohibition added the zest of the forbidden and so hastened the sharing by women of what had been a man's exclusive privilege in the country” (Owen 1933)

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Women- Changing Behavior

“Until prohibition came the Puritan tradition still restrained the habits of most American women” (Owen 1933)

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“Many speakeasies began to employ women as ‘hostesses’ to entice men to stay and drink. Prostitution... became epidemic in New York speakeasies where the presence of women of all types was not only permitted but encouraged.” (Dennison 2006, 32)

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“Girls resented the presence of inebriated men and men had begun to experience the same distaste. Now the taboo is gone. Every man is expected to carry a hip flask, both sexes get drunk together and cocktail shakers are sold in stores almost everywhere.” (Shaw qtd. in “Debate on Prohibition,” 1930)

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Women- Changing Behavior

“This sort of thing used to be called ‘slumming,’ intimating that respectable people should not be regularly participating in this type of intermingling.” (Literary Digest qtd. in “Raising the Bar” 2014, 136)

Drinking at the bar, saloon, Raceland, Louisiana. Courtesy of New York Public Library. (The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, 1938)

Group Photo, Women with Cigarettes (1925)

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Women- Changing Behavior

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Women- Changing Character

“New Women” broke the societal ladylike stereotype:

A woman “takes a pledge to sustain [her husband] and forward all that is best for him, to make herself the light of his home, and the blessing of his days for all the years to be.” (Sangster qtd. in “Raising the Bar” 2014, 91)

Then, “young women went to college, attended matinees alone, or went shopping alone” (Blahut 2014, 91)

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Flappers were noted for social rebellion, including “smoking in public, driving in cars, dancing the Charleston or the Shimmy, excessive consumption of alcohol in times of prohibition, nightly celebrations in jazz clubs and at petting parties, where men and women had premarital sexual experiences.” (Reinsch 1955)

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Women- Changing Character

Images of the "stable mother secure in her morality and content in her home, were pushed aside and replaced by the giddy flapper, rouged and clipped, careening in a drunken stupor to the lewd strains of a jazz quartet" (Fass qtd. in "A New Woman or an Old-Fashioned Girl?” 1994, 112)

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"she was labeled 'wild' and so great was the pressure of public opinion that she scarcely dared to be otherwise." (Adams 1929)

WOMEN'S FASHION: 1920s. - These three flappers of the 20's stylishly expose their knees by rolling down their silk stockings (c. 1920s)

Woman flapper with stocking flask (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, 1926)

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Women- Changing Behavior

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“Eltinge would spellbind audiences by building the illusion of a gilded age era/belle of the nineties woman, complete with song and dance, only to destroy it in an instant with what became his signature move, campily pulling his wig off at the end of the performance to reveal his male identity. Audiences loved it and Eltinge became among the highest paid performers in the United States earning up to $5,000 a week.” (Beyelia, 2018)

“One leading critic considered him “as great a performer as there stands on the stage today.” That same year he was offered and accepted a role in a full-length Broadway musical comedy. This launched a new chapter in his career that ultimately led to silent films in Hollywood.” (Hinds 2018)

Eltinge starred in successful films.

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Poster for The Isle of Love. (The Isle of Love 1920)

Poster for “The Fascinating Widow.” (The Fascinating Widow 2014)

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Entertainment- Public

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Mae West, a brawdy female playwright, featured impersonators as actors.

“West's other offense was her staging of female impersonation and other queer identities that went beyond popular vaudeville conventions and alluded to lifestyle habits and performance traditions that were shaping New York's social landscape in ways that dramatically challenged the status quo.” (Nereson 2012)

““There was Barbette, a trapeze and high-wire acrobat who performed in full drag until the finale, when he would rip off his wig and strike a masculine pose.” (Avery 2019)

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“Another drag performer pushing the envelope with outrageously raunchy material was Rae Bourbon, who played Carnegie Hall with his one-man show Don’t Call Me Madam. Bourbon befriended West, who cast him in two plays, as well as other celebrities like Bob Hope and Jean Harlow.” (Avery 2019)

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Crowds outside the Biltmore Theatre watching the second raid on The Pleasure Man. (Nereson 2012)

Advertisement for Rae Bourbon. Courtesy of the Kansas City Public Library. (2018)

One of The Pleasure Man's female impersonators waiting in a Black Maria. (2012)

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Entertainment- Public

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Entertainment- Underground

Impersonation prospered in speakeasies.

“Dante’s Inferno: the Kansas City club that became known throughout the city for female impersonation.” (Hinds 2018)

“The richest source of information about Dante’s Inferno is Edna Mae Whitehouse, who performed there.” (Hinds 2018)

“As a female impersonator and singer, Whitehouse supplemented her serving tips with additional gratuities earned during “table sitting” stints, as she called them. “I hustled those songs at tables...I’d squat down at the table...they always wanted a little sad song, even the gangsters, even the tough guys...I’d get as high as a hundred dollars.” (Whitehouse 1980)

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Entertainment- Underground

“The place consisted of female impersonators. Each of them would do something different. They had a special to do, each one of them...they dressed like women. They stayed dressed like women. They went around throughout the crowd as women. You know and they didn’t. Wasn’t nothing funny or faking with them, they were genuine.” (Washington 1977)

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Entertainment- Underground

Advertisement for Wolf’s Buffet featuring female impersonation from Kansas City, The Call. Courtesy of the Kansas City Public Library. (2018)

Dante’s Inferno. Courtesy of the Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. (Hinds 2018)

Dante's Inferno opening night advertisement from the Kansas City Journal-Post. Courtesy of the Kansas City Public Library. (2018)

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Entertainment- Underground

Edna Mae and Partner Billie Richards, Known as the Lynn Sisters. Courtesy of the Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. (2018)

Booker T. Washington, Second from the Right. (Cresswell’s 1932)

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Ending

Enforcement Issues

21st Amendment

“The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”

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“Armed with this law the New York Police could easily close the speakeasies of the city, yet I am informed that they have not brought a single action under Section 1530.” (Young 1929)

“The fruitless efforts at enforcement are creating public disregard not only for this law but for all laws. Public corruption through the purchase of official protection for this illegal traffic is widespread and notorious.” (Report on the Enforcement 1931, 83).

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Alcohol Consumption

Al Capone mug shot, 1934. Courtesy of National Archives (“Bootlegging”).

“Alcohol was a glamour product associated with excitement and intrigue.” (Thornton 1991, 4)

“Consumption would probably have surpassed pre-Prohibition levels even if Prohibition had not been repealed in 1933.” (Thornton 1991, 2)

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Per Capita Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages (Gallons of Pure Alcohol) 1910-1929. (Thornton)

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Implications

“In the beginning of Prohibition, it was like, ‘we have to do this to protect American women because men are spending all their wages on alcohol and they’re going home and beating their wives and their children.’ By the end of Prohibition, it was like ‘we have to get rid of Prohibition to get rid of organized crime to protect the home.’”

(Pembleton 2019)

“The barmen complain that [women] slow up business frightfully because they will have fancy drinks mixed up for them instead of taking it straight or with soda like the men.” (Brock 1934)

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“When hard liquor returned in 1934, the saloon had ceased being a men’s club and had become a social center.” (Viorst 1955)

Speakeasy Patrons Offer a Farewell Toast to

Prohibition, St. Louis, Missouri.

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Fleischmann’s Gin, 1934.

Compiled by Cheryl Krasnick Warsh

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Implications

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Implications

“To target women, whom the industry perceived as the largest group of abstainers, liquor ads customarily placed drinking in a domestic context, giving hostesses a central role in dispensing their products” (Blocker 2006)

“average of temperate behavior is much higher in the mixed parties than it used to be when the men were the only licensed barflies” (Brock 1934)

“when votes, drinks, and smokes for women were not a matter of course--when, in short, bartenders, anyway, could still fancy that this was a man’s world” (Brock 1934)

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Implications

Revelers Celebrating the End of Prohibition (Scherschel 1933)

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As a result of Prohibition’s clean slate for drinking culture, women entered the public drinking scene and broke the homosocial drinking barrier. Still, women’s public drinking took time to be completely normalized.

Prohibition and the resulting desire for alcohol drove people of different genders and sexualities together in speakeasies, which broke many pre-existing barriers to social inclusivity.

People became more receptive to new forms of entertainment, especially female impersonation, because Prohibition brought them together.

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“Before the Volstead Act, you’d go to the bar in your neighborhood where you were comfortable and everyone knew you...Suddenly alcohol goes underground, and you have to go out of your neighborhood and socialize with people you would have never socialized with before. So now gay people and straight people are put together in the same place, all clumped together. The atmosphere was more risqué—and the entertainment became more sensational.” -Historian Joe Jeffreys

(Avery 2019)

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Impersonation became accepted and integrated into American culture, combining the motivation to drink with the fascination towards impersonation.

“Often, sexual identification allowed groups of people who may not ordinarily have come into contact to forge communities in both private and public spaces throughout the city. Some of the most flourishing gay communities were in working-class immigrant neighborhoods, and Harlem hosted the most popular gay nightclubs in the city, as well as the largest drag ball, attracting both gay and straight spectators in the thousands.” (Nereson 2012)

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“You didn’t get on the rooftop and shout, ‘I f*cked my wife last night.’ So why would you get on the roof and say ‘I loved pr*ck.’ You didn’t. You just did what you wanted to do. Nobody was in the closet. There wasn’t any closet.” -Richard Bruce Nugent. (Watson 2001)

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Prohibition’s end closeted female impersonation.

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“With the Hays Code effectively banning Hollywood from portraying homosexual characters, and war in Europe on the horizon, the LGBT performers who had dominated nightlife for more than a decade were driven back underground.” (Barrios 2005)

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Table Decor

Napkins Quotes

“Everybody’s got larceny in ‘em, only most of ‘em don’t have the guts to do nothin’ about it” (Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano qtd. by Gosch and Martin 2013).

“The district began to lose its brightness in the Prohibition era, and, the report says, sent many of the syndicate leaders into cabarets and roadhouses, where vice and selling liquor went hand in hand” (“Chicago Vice,” 1928).

“That’s what we ought to do with whiskey-- got plenty of it-- good, uncut stuff right off the boat and then sell it at a high price to a bunch of people who don’t have brains enough not to drink it” (Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano qtd. by Gosch and Martin 2013).

Napkins Quotes

“In sworn testimony during an investigation in Chicago, one boss gambler testified… that all raids made by police are done under instructions of the protected ring for the purpose of driving competitors out of business” (Chamberlain 1932, 4).

“Visitors had the impression that they were in exotic milieu and, thus, in Harlem, one could behave against conventions. This also meant a rising homosexual community” (Reinsch 2012).

“When we first got them, [audiences] were curious. People didn’t know what to make of [impersonators]. But the longer we had them, the more they liked them” (Whitehouse 1980).

Napkins Quotes

“This is the age of the body… its wants, its feelings, its preservation, its covering, its emotion” (Glyn qtd. In “The 20th Century” 1999, 163).

“From now on I’m going to treat them as men. They smoke cigarettes, hold men’s jobs, and otherwise act as men.” (Judge G.W. Wagland qtd. In ‘More Women Held in War on Bootleg’ 1929).

“Sit with their escorts a couple of well-dressed women, not in the least like the bedizened or bedraggled creatures that used to haunt back rooms” (Brock 1934).