Prohibition

[Ben_Hecht]

Okrent was quite adamant in his book that there was no evidence supporting the claim that Joe Kennedy Sr. was a bootlegger.

Kennedy then used his connections with FDR to become the first head of the Securities and Exchange Commission followed by an utterly awful stint as ambassador to the UK.

FDR begged him to take the SEC job. Roosevelt knew that the best guy for that job was a guy who knew all the angles,
and would be able to throw roadblocks in the way of the "mine, mine, mine" angleshooters -- not just another Wall Street handmaiden.

Could use that, today.

 

[YankeeFan]

I turned on night one late and promptly fell asleep on the couch, but before I fell asleep, there was a brief mention of Joe Kennedy's father, P.J. Kennedy.

It was around the time they were talking about the breweries opening bars. They said how nearly anyone who agreed to serve a particular brewery's beer could open a bar.

Then, they talked about people distributing liquor and mentioned Kennedy and how he would build an empire that would lead to his grandson becoming President.

I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

A summation of a speech Burns made about prohibition at the National Press Club. Where as he once never drank at all, Burns says he felt compelled to tip a few back while making this one.

http://press.org/news-multimedia/news/prohibition-hurt-america-documentarian-ken-burns-says

 

[Bob Cook]

Another thing histories of the 1920s leave out is the incredible popularity of the Ku Klux Klan, and not just in the south. The KKK was a huge supporter of Prohibition, and it many of the most powerful white men in their respective states to ensure it got passed and enforced.

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1107362364.html

The anti-immigration fears exploited and fomented by the KKK in the 1920s also have a lot to do with why we have such a thing called "illegal immigration." The 1920s weren't the first time legislation was passed restricting immigration (restrictions on the Chinese were enacted in the 1890s), but that was when the most sweeping legislation came through.

 

[Greenhorn]

And brutally anti-Catholic Bob. Since support for Prohibition was also linked to anti-Catholic sentiment, this is unsurprising.

I always wondered if Catholic Al Smith (who was trounced by Hoover in the 1928 presidential election) would actually have won if he first ran against Hoover in 1932 instead of FDR.

 

[Bob Cook]

And brutally anti-Catholic Bob. Since support for Prohibition was also linked to anti-Catholic sentiment, this is unsurprising.

I always wondered if Catholic Al Smith (who was trounced by Hoover in the 1928 presidential election) would actually have won if he first ran against Hoover in 1932 instead of FDR.

Growing up in Indiana, I may have heard more of the history of that time than most, considering that the state elected a Klan-backed governor, a (long-dead) Indianapolis newspaper won a Pulitzer for exposing Klan links in politics, and the Klan's decline following the rape and murder conviction of Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson. At least, I remember it being discussed in my high school history classes.

 

[dreunc1542]

And brutally anti-Catholic Bob. Since support for Prohibition was also linked to anti-Catholic sentiment, this is unsurprising.

I always wondered if Catholic Al Smith (who was trounced by Hoover in the 1928 presidential election) would actually have won if he first ran against Hoover in 1932 instead of FDR.

Growing up in Indiana, I may have heard more of the history of that time than most, considering that the state elected a Klan-backed governor, a (long-dead) Indianapolis newspaper won a Pulitzer for exposing Klan links in politics, and the Klan's decline following the rape and murder conviction of Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson. At least, I remember it being discussed in my high school history classes.

The Klan stuff and anti-immigration policies were discussed in the high school and college classes I had that covered the 20s.

Also, the eugenics movement played a major part in getting the immigration restrictions passed. Keeping out Chinese and Japanese immigrants was seen as a way to keep from "polluting" the gene pool in the U.S.

To add some more, Indiana was the first place in the world to have a eugenics-based compulsory sterilization act, in 1907. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in Buck v. Bell in 1927 that sterilizing those deemed as "unfit" is legal.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

And brutally anti-Catholic Bob. Since support for Prohibition was also linked to anti-Catholic sentiment, this is unsurprising.

I always wondered if Catholic Al Smith (who was trounced by Hoover in the 1928 presidential election) would actually have won if he first ran against Hoover in 1932 instead of FDR.

Growing up in Indiana, I may have heard more of the history of that time than most, considering that the state elected a Klan-backed governor, a (long-dead) Indianapolis newspaper won a Pulitzer for exposing Klan links in politics, and the Klan's decline following the rape and murder conviction of Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson. At least, I remember it being discussed in my high school history classes.

Was there a 20th-century major-party POTUS-nomination slot more valuable than '32 for the Dems?

Think not.

Talk about following the oblivious.

 

[Double J]

Okrent was quite adamant in his book that there was no evidence supporting the claim that Joe Kennedy Sr. was a bootlegger.

Kennedy then used his connections with FDR to become the first head of the Securities and Exchange Commission followed by an utterly awful stint as ambassador to the UK.

FDR begged him to take the SEC job. Roosevelt knew that the best guy for that job was a guy who knew all the angles,
and would be able to throw roadblocks in the way of the "mine, mine, mine" angleshooters -- not just another Wall Street handmaiden.

Could use that, today.

Kennedy, however, badly wanted to be secretary of the treasury instead.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

78 years ago today the 21st Amendment was passed ending Prohibition.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

It's a moment honored on a nearly daily basis by many of us!

 

[deskslave]

To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!

 

[YankeeFan]

To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!

Homer?

 

[BrianGriffin]

Yes, I was about to post a thread on the show but wasn't sure if might be showing just here in San Antonio on KLRN.
Great show, which I was watching but am now recording for replay.
San Francisco had the Barbary Coast, New Orleans had Storyville, Manhattan had its own (but I can't remember what they said it's name was). Seattle had Skids Road.
Very cool doc.

Would NYC have been the Bowery?

 

[Bubbler]

It never really dawned on me how much of a role anti-German sentiment during World War I had with this becoming law.

I'm joining the Central Powers.

 

[deskslave]

To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!

Homer?

But of course.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!

Homer?

It wasn't So-crates.

 

[NickMordo]

Anyone watch this tonight? It's Ken Burns' latest on PBS. I'm learning so much. School children all over the country were being taught that alcohol could lead to spontaneous combustion -- wow!

So it is the equivalent of kids the past two decades being taught that marijuana is like frying your brain like an egg?