Distill the Right Answers in This Prohibition Quiz

Soda fountains replaced bars as popular spots for socializing, and in 1922, the electric blender was invented for making malts and milkshakes at those establishments.

Barrel-aging took far too long during Prohibition, so to emulate the taste of bourbon, bootleggers added unsavory ingredients such as rotten meat or dead rats to moonshine and allowed the concoction to sit for a few days.

The “Mary Pickford” was one of many rum cocktails invented during the ’20s. This recipe calls for rum, pineapple juice, grenadine, and maraschino liqueur.

Rather than indulging in alcohol, Americans began to indulge in ice cream — which inspired the early 1920s invention of Eskimo Pie, the first chocolate-covered ice cream bar.

Maine wasn’t new to Prohibition by the time it was enforced nationwide — the state had tried banning the sale of alcohol before, which culminated in the Portland Rum Riot of 1855.

Although segregation was the norm in America during the 1920s, “black and tan” jazz clubs were among the few establishments that promoted integration.

From Maine to Florida, “Rum Row” boats anchored just past the maritime boundary (3 miles out) in preparation to smuggle alcohol at night.

Two of America’s most prominent breweries put their massive refrigeration systems to good use and made ice cream to stay afloat during Prohibition.

Also known as the “Beer Act,” this legislation came nine months before the end of Prohibition and allowed the manufacturing and sale of low-alcohol beer and wines (up to 3.2%). Then-President Franklin Roosevelt signed the act shortly after taking office following an anti-Prohibition campaign in the 1932 presidential election.

On December 5, 1933, Prohibition officially came to an end. The 18th Amendment became the first in American history to be repealed when the requisite three-fourths of states voted to legalize liquor. Several states raced to become the official deciding vote to make the repeal official, and the state that eventually got it done was one that is by some measures the most sober in the union: Utah. The notoriously boozy city of New Orleans celebrated the repeal with 20 minutes of uninterrupted cannonball fire.

There were a few loopholes and exceptions for selling alcohol in the 1920s, including sacramental wines and medicinal alcohol, and Walgreens took great advantage. The chain expanded from 20 stores at the beginning of the decade to 525 by the end. The official company line gives credit for their growth to their milkshakes, but more likely, it was that patients could legally get one pint of alcohol from a pharmacy every 10 days.

The 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, and officially prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” Technically, the consumption of alcohol was not criminalized, and if Americans had liquor they had legally purchased before January 1920, they didn’t have to give it up.

During Prohibition, all substances containing more than .5% alcohol were outlawed in the United States. Many of the congresspeople who voted for Prohibition originally intended the ban to apply to hard liquor, but not to beer or wine. Wayne Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League then lobbied to define “intoxicating beverages” as anything with more than .5% alcohol, and in 1919, Congressman Andrew Volstead helped him put the limits into law.

The Prohibition era began against the wishes of President Woodrow Wilson, who vetoed the Volstead Act in 1919. The Republican-led House voted to override the veto, and the Senate joined them with a vote of 65 to 20, beginning Prohibition. Wilson never took a strong moral stance for or against Prohibition, but he disagreed with the procedure that led to the law.

One enterprising bootlegger, George Cassidy, carried suitcases of alcohol into the U.S. Capitol every day to sell his illegal wares to politicians. After five years of operation he was caught and arrested while wearing a green felt hat, earning his nickname, the “Man in the Green Hat." Once released, he simply moved to new House and Senate office buildings, and trade continued for another five years.

Women played an important role in the Prohibition movement through organizations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Activist Carrie Nation became a fierce critic of alcohol after her first husband died from alcoholism. She called barkeepers “destroyers of men’s souls,” and was known to attack saloons with a hatchet. Appropriately, she called her raids “hatchetations.”

The 18th Amendment banned alcohol throughout the U.S., but some Americans and foreign traders — known as bootleggers — weren’t willing to follow the rules. To hide their illegal activities, bootleggers came up with some inventive names for their alcoholic imports and homemade concoctions.

Prohibition ended in the United States when the 21st Amendment was ratified in 1933. Some states, however, kept the sale of alcohol illegal under state law. The prohibition of alcohol in Mississippi wasn’t lifted until 1966, but some counties still banned alcohol as late as January 1, 2021, when possession was finally legalized throughout the state.

During Prohibition, it was illegal to sell alcohol directly to consumers, so some retailers came up with cunning solutions. One was to sell bricks of dried grape juice. Buyers were “warned” by the packaging not to dissolve the brick in water and let it sit for 21 days, else it would turn into wine. Many buyers chose to ignore this warning, with intoxicating results.

Because the sale of alcohol was banned, many bars and saloons opened up in secret, known as “speakeasies” (usually high-end joints offering entertainment) or “blind pigs” (think: dive bars). The term “blind pigs” originated with a speakeasy owner in Maine who found an unusual way around selling his alcohol. He sold tickets for patrons to enter a back room to see a blind pig — the tickets just happened to come with a free shot of rum.

“Rumrunners” brought loads of Caribbean rum to East Coast cities, especially New York, where it became popular in cocktails for its ability to mask the harsh taste of alcohol with its fruity sweetness.

The 18th Amendment put Prohibition in place, and the 21st Amendment repealed it. In the intervening years, the 20th Amendment moved the start of presidential and congressional terms from March to January, and the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment reads: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

One way to find a speakeasy during Prohibition was to search for a green door. Thanks to strict rules, there weren’t many other ways to advertise to would-be customers. One of Chicago’s most historic speakeasies is still in operation today: the Green Door Tavern, which opened in 1921 and still proudly celebrates its Prohibition roots.

The fedora was initially a hat for women, but after the fashionable Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII of England), wore one in the 1920s, the soft felt hat with an indented crown became popular with men. The hat was linked to gangsters because it was a style staple among bootleggers during the Prohibition era.

Organized crime reached new heights during Prohibition as mob bosses such as Al Capone (also known as “Scarface”) made millions from bootlegged alcohol.

The policy of Prohibition would have been worthless without enforcement, which came in the form of the National Prohibition Act, aka the Volstead Act. The law’s nickname came from Minnesota Representative Andrew Volstead, one of the leading supporters of Prohibition. The Volstead Act was one of the rare cases of a presidential veto being overridden by support in Congress.

Prohibition may be a distant memory now, but the dry spell lasted a whopping 13 years. The 18th Amendment – banning the manufacturing, transportation, and sale of liquor – was ratified in 1919, and wasn’t repealed until the passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933.

While running for President in 1928, Herbert Hoover called the controversial practice of Prohibition a “noble experiment.” Hoover supported the law, but by the early '30s, the majority of citizens thought Prohibition had failed. Legend has it that when FDR defeated Hoover in 1932, he celebrated with a dirty martini.

Founded in 1869, the Prohibition Party was a U.S. political party that opposed the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other intoxicants. Thomas Nast, the cartoonist responsible for the Democratic Party’s donkey mascot and the Republican Party’s elephant, chose a camel to represent the Prohibition Party, since these desert-dwelling animals can go a long time without a drink.

While much of the country adopted and abided by the 18th Amendment, Maryland gave Prohibition a hard pass. Each state was required to create laws enforcing Prohibition within their borders, but Maryland, nicknamed “the free state,” never did. Federal law eventually won out, but Maryland’s drinkers, and its legislators, did not diligently follow suit.