Speakeasy
SPEAKEASY
SPEAKEASY, also known as a "blind pig" or a "blind tiger," is an illicit or unlicensed establishment dispensing alcoholic beverages. The speakeasy had been part of the American scene since at least the 1890s, but it reached its heyday after the Eighteenth Amendment took effect in January 1920, ushering in the Prohibition era. Though alcohol was officially illegal during Prohibition, bootleggers and distributors of illicit alcohol enjoyed a thriving business serving a public still eager to drink. At the height of their popularity (1924–1933), speakeasies were generally either bars or restaurants to which people gained admission by personal introduction or by presenting a card, usually informally. In social class they ranged from smart restaurants to underworld dens, but whereas before Prohibition, most "respectable" women would not be welcome in a public bar, women as well as men began flocking to speakeasies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allsop, Kenneth. The Bootleggers: The Story of Chicago's Prohibition Era. London: Hutchinson, 1968.
Behr, Edward. Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America. New York: Arcade, 1996.
Cashman, Sean Dennis. Prohibition, the Lie of the Land. New York: Free Press, 1981.
Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Stanley R.Pillsbury/d. b.
See alsoCrime, Organized ; Jazz Age ; Women in Public Life, Business, and Professions .