Prohibition Starts, Everyone Still Drinks (1920)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's January 16th. 1920, at midnight (of the 17th) the Volstead Act took hold, bringing prohibition to the United States.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why this did very little to actually curb alcohol consumption, in those first hours and beyond. Plus, some thoughts on the decline of drinking in our modern age.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:09.9	Welcome to the first dry January of 1920.
0:14.7	At 12 a.m. or 12 and 1 second a.m. on January 17th, 1920, the Volstead Act kicked in, which meant the
0:22.5	prohibition came into force throughout the country. No more liquor for Americans. That was at 12 a.m.
0:29.6	midnight. The first documented violation of the Volstead Act was recorded 59 minutes later in
0:34.6	Chicago when thieves held up a freight train, stole about $100,000 worth of whiskey.
0:39.6	So we tried, America.
0:41.9	We tried to stop drinking.
0:43.0	We tried for 59 minutes.
0:44.6	Come on an hour.
0:45.6	That's the only official recording of that, right?
0:48.6	But look, we've talked about the temperance movement fair amount on this show.
0:52.2	And I want to focus in today on those very first
0:55.3	moments of prohibition, the hours, days, weeks after the Volstead Act was implemented. America was
1:01.6	basically trying to stick a finger in the dam that was holding back a river of alcohol. There are
1:06.2	some wild stories in here here to discuss. As always, our Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:13.2	Hello there.
1:13.7	Hello, Jody.
1:14.9	Hey there.
1:15.6	How would you have survived in those first days of prohibition?
1:19.6	I would have been all right.
	...

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