Speakeasy Event to Benefit The Fresno Historical Society

May 02, 2013 No Comments by

FRESNO – Guys and dolls decked out in their swankest ‘20s era duds will take a trip back in time Friday as a “secret” venue in Fresno will be transformed into a Speakeasy, with proceeds from the event benefiting The Fresno Historical Society.

Attendees will enjoy Prohibition cocktails, appetizers, music, costume prizes and event valet parking.  It was easy to find a libation in early 20th century Fresno, with more than 50 saloons, taverns and roadhouses ready to serve. But Prohibition changed the culture and even the landscape of the Central Valley.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States passed Jan. 17, 1920, making illegal “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.”

Thanks to a loophole in Prohibition law, the head of every household was allowed to make 200 gallons of wine per year. Demand soared for hearty grapes that could survive transport across the country, so Valley vineyard owners tore out their fine wine varieties and planted tough-skinned grapes that shipped well.

Enterprising farmers produced grape concentrate called “wine bricks” or “wine blocks.” The concentrate came with a warning that also served as winemaking instructions: “After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine.”

Valley grape products were transported all along the East Coast most notably to New York City, where they were sold at Penn Station to home winemakers and bootleggers.

You had to be resourceful if you wanted to slake your thirst in Central California. Prohibition enforcement officers conducted raids and round-ups – arresting bootleggers, moonshine runners and speakeasy patrons with vigor.

Kern County’s Officer T.J. Niceley went after lawbreakers big and small. In January 1923, Niceley and his crew broke up a bootlegging ring and destroyed 400 gallons of wine and five gallons of “jackass whiskey.” A few months earlier, Niceley conducted a sweep and arrested several men for possession of small amounts of illicit alcohol. One of the unfortunates was fined $1,000 over a pint of liquor.

Not all Prohibition arrests were so sobering. On Jan. 16, 1921, “The Fresno Republican” newspaper ran a story about a “Walking Blind Pig.”  Typically, a “blind pig” was a “lower-class establishment that sold alcoholic beverages.” This one, however, was arrested for selling brandy on its two human feet after officers were alerted to “a perambulating pig…walking up and down the sidewalk at I and Kern streets.”

Tickets to Friday’s event, which runs from 7 to 11 p.m., are $30 for FHS members, $35 in advance for non-members, $40 for non-members on event day, and can be purchased at www.valleyhistory.org or by calling (559) 441-0862.  Once tickets are purchased, the buyer will be given a phone number for the “secret” venue and password.  Admission includes one Prohibition-era cocktail, with choices that include a Side Car, a Bee’s Knees or a French 75.

Entertainment, Headlines, Non Profit

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