Prohibition dried up Indianapolis (Wink, wink)
On this day in 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
Not up on all of your Constitutional amendments? People could drink again!
Well, legally anyway.
The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, bringing an end to 13 years of mundane family gatherings around the holidays.
The federal prohibition law kicked in Jan. 20, 1920, but two years earlier Indiana passed its own prohibition law.
That law went into effect on April 3, 1918, at midnight.
Rain poured down on Indianapolis. There was some last minute whooping it up, though.
At the bar at the Severin Hotel, according to a report in The Indianapolis Star, a "banjo orchestra" led by a Vess Ossman "mournfully thrummed" "Auld Lang Syne."
People didn't want to go home, so they lingered awhile. A police officer had to shoo them away. The police officer's name: Drinkutt.
Things got a bit dicier at the Brevort Hotel Cafe. "Within two minutes from closing," The Star reported, "a checkered-suited young blood attempted to christen the cafe ceiling with beer, and as a result a beer shower filled half the room. Waiters rushed to the young man's side. Charlie, one of the waiters, was first to arrive and a fight ensued. It is said that knives were drawn, but the two men were separated before any cutting took place. Both were hustled from the cafe before police could be summoned."
Customers, probably hammered, tipped big. One waiter "had a fistful of tips when one of revelers jumped up, striking the waiter's hand, and the dimes, quarters and halves scattered in all directions. Instantly the revelers 'piled on sacks,' seeking the tips as souvenirs."
Prohibition in Indiana by the numbers
Arrests for operating stills, maintaining nuisances or operating "blind tigers": 23,250.
Arrests for public intoxication: 60,000.
Arrests for drunken driving: 6,500.
Number of tavern employees put out of work by Prohibition: 9,500.
Number of bars closed statewide: 3,520.
Number of bars closed in Indianapolis: 547.
Source: Indianapolis Star archives
The Victrola incident
Amid the Prohibition crackdown, police raided Ben Patterson's New Jersey Street home. Police "found a safe containing two quarts and one half pint of whisky," The Star reported. "A one-half pint bottle of whisky was found concealed in the Victrola, the police said, and behind pictures on the mantelpiece in the room they found concealed a pop bottle partly filled with whisky and a whisky glass."
A Victrola was an old-time record player.
So Ben Patterson was fun.
Call IndyStar reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter @WillRHiggins.