Fiorella LaGuardia
Clip: Season 1 | 3m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Fiorella LaGuarida was a NY congressman and critic of Prohibition.
Fiorella LaGuardia was a Republican Congressman of New York and critic of the Volstead Act.
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Fiorella LaGuardia
Clip: Season 1 | 3m 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Fiorella LaGuardia was a Republican Congressman of New York and critic of the Volstead Act.
From
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Never underestimate the need for young dopes to defy the conventional laws.
You want something, you want them to brush their teeth?
Make it illegal.
Make toothpaste illegal, and they'll be standing on the roof, brushing away.
It's natural to human beings.
I think it's a healthy thing.
- [Narrator] On June 19, 1926, six and a half years after prohibition became the law of the land, republican congressman Fiorello Laguardia of New York called 20 newspaper men and photographers into room 150 of the House office building in Washington, D.C.
No one had been a more vociferous critic of the Volstead Act.
He thought it intrusive, unfair to the poor, and above all, hypocritical.
To prove it, he stood before the cameras and mixed two perfectly legal products available in any neighborhood grocery: non-alcoholic near beer and malt extract, which, when allowed to ferment, would become illegal two percent beer.
He downed a glass of it, pronounced it not only delicious, but refreshing, pure, and wholesome, and dared anyone to stop him.
No one did.
When the director of the New York prohibition office warned that anyone who tried to duplicate Laguardia's stunt in his state would be arrested.
The congressman hurried home to stage the same demonstration at Kaufman's drugstore on Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
No prohibition agent turned up to arrest him, and when he asked the passing patrolman to take him in, the officer said it wasn't his job.
"The 18th amendment," Laguardia said, "was a disaster."
It had created contempt and disregard for the law all over the country.
- I think the thing that stands out for me most when I think about prohibition is, the law of unintended consequences.
That you just don't know what you're gonna get when you pass a law that seems pretty straightforward.
- What a stupid idea it was, that people actually thought you could get away with this, that you could actually ban alcohol, completely eliminate its usage in American society.
It's a preposterous idea.
- To me, one of the great lessons of prohibition is that the dry movement in the late 1920's had an opportunity to capitalize on its success, but modify the most egregious issues within the Volstead Act and the enforcement of prohibition, and refused to.
In their extremism, they eliminated all moderate support, and that's a really important political asset, that applies to a lot of different movements, that you gotta bend a little if you're gonna stay, if you're gonna keep what you've got.
'Cause if you don't bend, it's all gonna come crashing down around you.
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Clip: S1 | 9m 35s | Roy Olmstead is caught in a wiretapping sting and sentenced to four years hard labor. (9m 35s)
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Clip: S1 | 5m 2s | Wayne Wheeler was the general counsel for the Anti-Saloon League. (5m 2s)
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Clip: S1 | 51s | In 1913 Prohibitionists marched on Washington, D.C. to demand a Prohibition Amendment. (51s)
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Clip: S1 | 3m 15s | The Volstead Act was much stricter than anticipated. (3m 15s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 57s | The 1924 Democratic convention set the stage for rural vs. urban America. (7m 57s)
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Clip: S1 | 13m 20s | With the passage of the 16th Amendment, the Goverment no longer needed taxes from Alcohol (13m 20s)
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Clip: S1 | 9m 11s | Saloons served many functions during the 19th century for men, especially for immigrants. (9m 11s)
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Clip: S1 | 32s | In 1924 the Boston Herald held a contest for a word that captured the nations hypocracy (32s)
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Clip: S1 | 1m 50s | New York was Prohibition's biggest challenge. (1m 50s)
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Clip: S1 | 3m 46s | Boats would wait out at sea until nightfall to bring in illegal alcohol. (3m 46s)
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Clip: S1 | 6m 4s | The history of alcohol in America. (6m 4s)
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Clip: S1 | 8m 54s | The Anti Saloon League made Prohibition into a wedge issue in elections. (8m 54s)
Pete Hamill: Defying Authority
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Clip: S1 | 24s | Pete Hamill talks about defying authority. (24s)
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Clip: S1 | 10m 2s | Pauline Sabin was founder of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform. (10m 2s)
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Preview: S1 | 32s | Watch Prohibition, where average citizens became lawbreakers. (32s)
Preview: S1 | 1m 2s | Discover the true story of America's "Great Experiment" in PROHIBITION. (1m 2s)
Preview: S1 | 32s | Discover the true story of America's "Great Experiment" in PROHIBITION. (32s)
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Clip: S1 | 1m 54s | Lou Alpern sold alcohol at his NYC cordial stores with the help of bribed policemen. (1m 54s)
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Clip: S1 | 2m 49s | An early prohibitionist, he was the wealthy mayor of Portland, Maine. (2m 49s)
Michael Lerner: Regulating Society
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Clip: S1 | 30s | How much can we regulate society? (30s)
Margot Loines Wilkie: On Dating
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Clip: S1 | 43s | Margot Loines Wilkie discusses the changing sexual mores of the 1920's. (43s)
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Clip: S1 | 5m 52s | Ms. Willebrandt was the Asst. Attny Gen. in charge of Prohibition enforcement. (5m 52s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 44s | Lois Long, pen-name 'Lipstick,' wrote about speakeasies for the New Yorker. (7m 44s)
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Clip: S1 | 5m 3s | January 16, 1920 the 18th Amendment came into effect. (5m 3s)
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Clip: S1 | 1m 53s | Native born Americans were distrustful of immigrants and their traditions. (1m 53s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 45s | With the Volstead Act, ordinary criminals became wealthy selling illegal alcohol. (7m 45s)
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Clip: S1 | 6m 9s | Roy Olmstead, a Seattle police officer turned to bootlegging and made a fortune. (6m 9s)
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Clip: S1 | 1m 40s | Don Ward talks about hiding illegal alcohol in Arlington Cemetery. (1m 40s)
George Remus The Primrose Path
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Clip: S1 | 8m 41s | George Remus is caught by the government then put on trial. (8m 41s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 58s | George Remus, a Chicago lawyer became king of the bootleggers. (7m 58s)
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Clip: S1 | 12m 39s | The 1928 Presidental election was a bitter battle of dirty politics directed at Al Smith. (12m 39s)
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Clip: S1 | 6m 51s | Sexual mores start to change for Women during Prohibition. (6m 51s)
Frances Willard & Mary Hanchett Hunt
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Clip: S1 | 7m 27s | The history of Frances Willard and Mary Hanchett Hunt in the WCTU. (7m 27s)
Now PlayingVideo has Closed Captions
Clip: S1 | 3m 30s | Fiorella LaGuarida was a NY congressman and critic of Prohibition. (3m 30s)
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Clip: S1 | 2m 3s | Neither the states nor the federal government wanted to fund Prohibition. (2m 3s)
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Preview: S1 | 3m 6s | Ken Burns and Wynton Marsalis talk about putting together the score for Prohibition. (3m 6s)
Extended Look | The Eighteenth Amendment
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Preview: S1 | 3m 1s | Prohibition explores the rise and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment. (3m 1s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 12s | Eliza Jane Thompson led a group of women in prayer while protesting in front of saloons. (7m 12s)
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Clip: S1 | 1m 50s | Many Americans drank more during Prohibition. (1m 50s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 33s | Carry Nation vandalized saloons across Kansas in 1900. (7m 33s)
America, A Multi-Ethnic Nation
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Clip: S1 | 9m 14s | More folks lived in cities then the country in the beginning of the 20th century. (9m 14s)
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Clip: S1 | 7m 31s | On Feb. 14, 1929, seven men are gunned down and the public is incensed. (7m 31s)
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Clip: S1 | 5m 4s | Al Capone is finally caught by the government for failing to file income tax. (5m 4s)
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Clip: S1 | 3m 57s | Adolphus Busch was the biggest brewer of his day. (3m 57s)
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Clip: S1 | 6m 25s | The problem of drink would have to be overcome through legislation. (6m 25s)
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Clip: S1 | 3m 45s | Sylvester Mather talks about his father, Frank's tragic career as a Prohibition agent. (3m 45s)
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Clip: S1 | 2m 15s | Paul Ward was a D.C. Bootlegger whose business took him into the Capital Building. (2m 15s)
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Clip: Ep1 | 4m 56s | Watch the first minutes of episode one 'A Nation of Drunkards.' (4m 56s)
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Support for PBS provided by:
Funding is provided by Bank of America; PBS; CPB; The National Endowment for the Humanities; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; members of the Better Angels Society, including the Montrone Family through The Penates Foundation; and Park Foundation, Inc.