1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:02,960 Speaker 1: Hey there, it's your host ed helms. 2 00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:03,160 Speaker 2: Here. 3 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I wanted 4 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:09,480 Speaker 1: to remind you that my brand new book is coming 5 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:13,400 Speaker 1: out on April twenty ninth. It's called Snaffo, The Definitive 6 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,959 Speaker 1: Guide to History's Greatest screw Ups, and you can pre 7 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 1: order it right now at snaffoodashbook dot com. Trust me, 8 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: if you like this show, you're gonna love this book. 9 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: It's got all the wild disasters spectacular face plants we 10 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: just couldn't squeeze into this podcast. And here's the kicker. 11 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,840 Speaker 1: I am also going on tour to celebrate that's right. 12 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,559 Speaker 1: I'm coming to New York, DC, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, 13 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,520 Speaker 1: San Francisco, and my hometown Los Angeles. So if you've 14 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: ever wanted to see me stumble through a live Q 15 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 1: and A or dramatically read about a kiddie cat getting 16 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,960 Speaker 1: turned into a CIA operative, now's your chance again. Head 17 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: to snaffoo dashbook dot com to pre order the book 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: and check out all the tour details in day, or 19 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: just click the link in the show notes. That'll work too. Okay, 20 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: that's it, on with the chaos. This is Snaffoo Season 21 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: three Formula six previously on Snaffoo. In the nineteen twenties, 22 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:18,759 Speaker 1: New York City was facing a record number of unsolved murders. 23 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 3: There are death certificates that literally say, could be diabetes 24 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 3: or possibly an auto accident. 25 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 1: You're just going seriously until unlikely. Duo Charles Norris and 26 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: Alexander Getler teamed up to investigate. 27 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 3: They're like a buddy cop movie of like these two 28 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 3: scientists in the trenches together. 29 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,960 Speaker 1: And while America braced itself for the new normal of prohibition. 30 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 4: Georgia becomes the thirteenth state to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment. 31 00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: Norris and Getler issued a warning to the public as 32 00:01:50,720 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: the bodies kept stacking up at Bellevue Hospital. The winter 33 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: of nineteen oh one in Topeka, Kansas was a cold one. 34 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: Temperatures hovered in the single digits. I imagine the wind 35 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,239 Speaker 1: howling down the streets. Too much snow for a car, 36 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,320 Speaker 1: although someone might bust out a horse drawn slay or two. 37 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: But inside one saloon, the Senate Bar, the regulars got cozy. 38 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,840 Speaker 1: This was a favorite haunt for elected officials, situated not 39 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: far from the state capitol, equipped with enough booze for 40 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: the local elite to forget all about the cold weather, 41 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 1: and also the fact that many of them had recently 42 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: voted to ban the sale of alcohol statewide. At least 43 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: that's how it was on most nights, but one freezing 44 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:46,120 Speaker 1: called dawn. Before the place opened up, a silhouette fills 45 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: the doorway. It's a woman six feet tall and easily 46 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: able to stand eye to eye with any corn fed 47 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:55,000 Speaker 1: man in Topeka. She wears a black dress and black 48 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: ribbons in her hair, like she's attending a funeral, and 49 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: she peers into the darkened saloon her little oval shaped glasses. 50 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,240 Speaker 1: It's highly unusual for any woman to enter a saloon 51 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,359 Speaker 1: in this day and age, let alone at five point 52 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,519 Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. But this is a highly unusual woman. 53 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: Her name is Carrie Nation. There's one employee inside the 54 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: closed bar as Carrie forces the door open. Even if 55 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: he doesn't know her, by the look of righteous fury 56 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: in her eyes, he can probably guess her intentions from 57 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: the hatchet she's wielding in her hand. Carrie Nation didn't 58 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:33,080 Speaker 1: come here to crack open a cold one with the boys, 59 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: or at least not the way you'd think. This hatchet 60 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 1: is her signature accessory, and before the barman can stop her, 61 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: she starts putting it to use. Carrie jumps behind the 62 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: bar and smashes the liquor bottles. Carrie, no, she smashes 63 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: the glasses. She smashes the faucets, the cash register, the 64 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: slot machine. 65 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:58,119 Speaker 5: Oh, my peavies. 66 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 4: Well, at least I'm still looking down. 67 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:02,559 Speaker 1: Even the mirror on the wall. 68 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 6: My reflection. 69 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 1: But all of this is prelude, because finally Carrie Nation 70 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,640 Speaker 1: lays into her number one target, the kegs. 71 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 7: It was beer o'clock. 72 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,719 Speaker 1: She drives her hatchet into the beer kegs, flooding the 73 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:26,600 Speaker 1: bar floor with the devil's elixir. By the time the 74 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: sheriff arrives, Carrie is soaked to the bone. Her behavior 75 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: was extreme, but Carrie Nation was nothing if not a zealot. 76 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: By nineteen oh one, she had become the axe wielding 77 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: face of the Temperance movement. The Senate Bar is just 78 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,279 Speaker 1: the latest stop in her crusade to destroy every last 79 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:50,520 Speaker 1: keg in America, and in that crusade, Carrie is far 80 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: from alone. Before she started smashing stuff up, Carrie was 81 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,520 Speaker 1: a devout Christian and felt compelled by God to do 82 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:01,680 Speaker 1: things like making clothes for the poor or opening a 83 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: shelter for the families of violent alcoholics. Her first husband 84 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: had been a severe alcoholic himself, dying of drink in 85 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,479 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine and leaving Carrie with their infant daughter. 86 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,479 Speaker 1: Influenced by her own experience and that of others around her, 87 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: Carrie would later say that she felt personally called by 88 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,480 Speaker 1: God to rid the country of alcohol. Her devoted service 89 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,720 Speaker 1: to the poor earned her the nickname Mother Nation. At 90 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:29,680 Speaker 1: the same time, her manic attacks on saloons earned her 91 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: the nickname hatchet Granny. Carrie referred to herself as. 92 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,680 Speaker 5: A bull dog running along at the feet of Jesus, 93 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:39,839 Speaker 5: miking it way. 94 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 4: He doesn't like you. 95 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:44,720 Speaker 1: Call her a bulldog, Call her hatchet Granny, call her 96 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: whatever you like. Carrie Nation was an impassioned anti alcohol activist. 97 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,280 Speaker 1: She and people like her were determined to remake America 98 00:05:53,560 --> 00:06:07,560 Speaker 1: by any means necessary. I'm at Helms and this is Snaffo, 99 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: a show about history's greatest screw ups. This is season three, 100 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,479 Speaker 1: the story of Formula six. How prohibitions wore on alcohol 101 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,720 Speaker 1: went so off the rails the government wound up poisoning 102 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: its own people. Today we're taking a look at the 103 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: people responsible for prohibition. See, before the government set about 104 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,279 Speaker 1: watching the enforcement of dry laws, lone wolves like Carrie 105 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,719 Speaker 1: Nation had already been taking matters into their own hands 106 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:37,479 Speaker 1: for decades. 107 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 8: Even in the years leading up to Prohibition. I think 108 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,920 Speaker 8: half the states were already going dry. It was already starting. 109 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:08,040 Speaker 8: It was this ground swell. 110 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: That's Terence Winter, legendary TV writer and creator of Boardwalk Empire. 111 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: His show like Ours, takes place in the twenties, but 112 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,400 Speaker 1: the full story of Prohibition begins a lot earlier. 113 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 8: I got where it came from. Alcoholism was devastating. You know, 114 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:26,600 Speaker 8: if you had the cliche as the data got paid 115 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 8: on Friday and then you didn't see him and spent 116 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 8: all his money at the bar, and your family went 117 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 8: destined to This is been days before social programs or 118 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 8: even before AA was a thing. 119 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:38,160 Speaker 9: It was a real problem. 120 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 1: Terry made himself an expert on this stuff for Boardwalk Empire, 121 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: digging into the research. 122 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 10: You know, at the time we created National Prohibition, sixty 123 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 10: five percent of America already lived in a dry town. 124 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 10: Sixty five percent of Americans already couldn't buy liquor in town. 125 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:58,120 Speaker 1: That's historian Paul Thompson anti alcohol sentiment, also called temperance, 126 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 1: was a social movement. It eventually led to prohibition, the 127 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: outright banning of alcohol, but it didn't start out that way. 128 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:09,680 Speaker 10: What is called the temperance movement lasted over a century. 129 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 10: It started by meaning simply, individuals should avoid drunkenness, and 130 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 10: so it was temperate use of alcoholic beverages, with a 131 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:23,120 Speaker 10: particular focus on distilled beverages, so you're whiskey and your 132 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 10: gins and your brandies. 133 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,120 Speaker 1: Early temperance supporters urged people to abstain from drink, starting 134 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: with liquor, but eventually also beer and wine. For them, 135 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,199 Speaker 1: it was a personal choice you could make to improve 136 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:39,720 Speaker 1: both yourself and society. Here's Tom Pegram, author of Battling 137 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: demon Rum the Struggle for a Dry America. 138 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:47,800 Speaker 11: Temperance is a self control movement not tied to legal restrictions. 139 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: Self control was all the rage in the early eighteen hundreds, 140 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,120 Speaker 1: and not just when it came to booze. Case in point, 141 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: New England Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham. 142 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:02,079 Speaker 11: Sylvester Graham was a diet and health reformer in the 143 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:03,199 Speaker 11: early nineteenth centuries. 144 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 12: Also a temperance guy so Lester. 145 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:09,720 Speaker 11: Graham believed that meat was sexually stimulating, and in fact 146 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 11: he led an attack I think. 147 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:14,080 Speaker 12: In somewhere in Massachusetts on Butcher's. 148 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,480 Speaker 1: Graham loved temperance in all its forms, you name it, 149 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: he didn't want you to enjoy it. He encouraged a 150 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: diet of vegetables and whole wheat in order to best 151 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: suppress those bodily urges. Today, he's most famous for his 152 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:31,560 Speaker 1: cracker recipe. Yep, that's right, Graham. Crackers were designed to 153 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: stop people from masturbating. But it wasn't all about self denial. 154 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,920 Speaker 1: Temperance advocates tended to believe in other types of social change, 155 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:44,240 Speaker 1: things which, even if they sound like basic human rights today, 156 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,319 Speaker 1: were actually quite radical in eighteen hundreds of America. 157 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:50,720 Speaker 10: Guess what else they wanted. The people that wanted a 158 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:53,320 Speaker 10: prohibition party wanted to give women the right to vote. 159 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,720 Speaker 10: This is eighteen sixty nine, and that should tell you 160 00:09:56,800 --> 00:09:59,439 Speaker 10: how radical these people were. Because women didn't get the 161 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:04,079 Speaker 10: right to vote nineteen nineteen, so these people are decades 162 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:08,319 Speaker 10: ahead of the nation on women. There was a lot 163 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 10: of temperance people that were not abolitionists, but every abolitionist 164 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 10: was a teetotal. 165 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:18,679 Speaker 1: Temperance could easily go hand in hand with blatant racism. 166 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 1: In fact, put a pin in that for later. But 167 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:24,319 Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds, the likes of Frederick Douglass and 168 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:27,680 Speaker 1: sojourn her Truth were prominent figures in the temperance movement. 169 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: The people fighting hardest for causes like racial equality and 170 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,559 Speaker 1: women's rights were often supporters of temperance as well. 171 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,760 Speaker 10: It's very hard for people in the late twentieth and 172 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:43,079 Speaker 10: twenty first century to understand that temperance and prohibition advocates 173 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 10: were progressives. 174 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 1: Here's author Dan Okrant on what it meant to be 175 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: a progressive back in the eighteen hundreds. 176 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 9: You believe in the betterment of society through government action 177 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,200 Speaker 9: and an expertise and turning things over to the people 178 00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:58,040 Speaker 9: who really knew what they were doing. It was kind 179 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:01,480 Speaker 9: of an anti democratic impulse. It's not related really to 180 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:04,240 Speaker 9: the progressivism that we know today. 181 00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 1: But the dries, as the temperance advocates came to be known, 182 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:11,719 Speaker 1: didn't arise in a vacuum. In fact, Temperance started to 183 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,160 Speaker 1: gain steam at precisely the same time as immigrants from 184 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: Europe streamed into American cities. In record numbers, packed into 185 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:25,040 Speaker 1: unsafe tenement buildings. Compelled to work exhausting and often dangerous jobs, 186 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: these newcomers were in desperate need of a place to 187 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:30,680 Speaker 1: unwind and throw back a few beers. 188 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:34,440 Speaker 11: There were public houses, there were taverns, and colonial and 189 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:37,680 Speaker 11: Revolutionary America in the early part of the nineteenth century 190 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:42,240 Speaker 11: in rural areas, often servingo's hotels as well. But the 191 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:47,280 Speaker 11: saloon was tied to urbanization and also tied to beer 192 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:50,080 Speaker 11: culture and the Germans, you know, as the Germans came in, 193 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 11: they brought in lager beer. Americans had English type ales, 194 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:58,600 Speaker 11: but the lager beer revolution really switched American drinking practices. 195 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:04,400 Speaker 6: Who wanted to improve society that they had their ideas 196 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:07,720 Speaker 6: of how to improve it, tended to associate the evils 197 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 6: of urbanization, the evils of industrialization, with immigration, because all 198 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:14,600 Speaker 6: of those things come together. 199 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,840 Speaker 1: That's Annie polland the president of the Tenement Museum. In 200 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: the heart of New York City's Lower East Side. 201 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 6: There were five hundred and twenty six lagger beer saloons 202 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 6: in the neighborhood then known as kleindoutsch Lund. Now we 203 00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:29,640 Speaker 6: think of the Lower east Side and the East Village 204 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 6: and so saloons were everywhere, and saloons were the living 205 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 6: rooms of the community. 206 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:39,840 Speaker 1: Take us inside, Annie. 207 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:42,920 Speaker 6: You would take a few steps down from the street 208 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 6: into a lower level opening an all wooden door. It 209 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:52,040 Speaker 6: would probably be lit very well, with beautiful lanterns and lamps, 210 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 6: wooden tables filled with different foods, pretzels, hard biled eggs, cheeses, 211 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:02,359 Speaker 6: sauer kraut, different kinds of meat. Do you'd have musicians 212 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:05,200 Speaker 6: there because it was a place for musicians together. 213 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:09,680 Speaker 1: Welcome to yummytown. That almost makes all the turn of 214 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:13,320 Speaker 1: the century typhoid and dysentery worth it. 215 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,600 Speaker 6: It would be noisy, lots of the sounds of people 216 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:20,200 Speaker 6: singing or talking. Maybe there'd be newspapers out, maybe there'd 217 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:24,520 Speaker 6: be different games out. You'd probably see children coming downstairs 218 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:26,720 Speaker 6: with a growler to fill to bring back upstairs to 219 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:27,280 Speaker 6: the family. 220 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:32,320 Speaker 1: Our man Alexander Gettler, chief toxicologist at Bellevue Hospital, and 221 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: himself an immigrant, would have been quite familiar with places 222 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,480 Speaker 1: like this. His family actually brewed their own beer in 223 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:41,559 Speaker 1: their bathroom, and their social lives would have been intimately 224 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:43,320 Speaker 1: tied to the saloons around them. 225 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 6: Of Course, the smell of beer but also the smell 226 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 6: of cooking and the smell of tobacco. You might also 227 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,840 Speaker 6: have people conducting business in a saloon. One of the 228 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:56,199 Speaker 6: things that the Germans and the Germans speaking immigrants did 229 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:01,040 Speaker 6: a lot was form associations, mutual aid associations, political associations, 230 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:06,760 Speaker 6: associations for singing, for dancing, for gymnastics, like you name it. 231 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,560 Speaker 1: Hitler was more workaholic than an alcoholic, and there's no 232 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,440 Speaker 1: record of him joining any associations for singing, dancing, or gymnastics. 233 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 1: But this was his world. People like Getler worked their 234 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: asses off to make a life for themselves and their 235 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,560 Speaker 1: families in the US, but as they did, they faced 236 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 1: discrimination from the blue blooded Protestants of this country. Ironically, 237 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: people quite similar to Getler's partner Charles Norris, who were 238 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:37,520 Speaker 1: fed up with immigrants, their foreign cultures, and their pernicious booze. 239 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:42,960 Speaker 10: The native born white middle class by late eighteen hundreds 240 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:47,920 Speaker 10: that's already bought into abstinence sees these what they called 241 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 10: hordes state of Jews and Catholics coming in, who are 242 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 10: also a lot of times halfway literate in English, and 243 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,600 Speaker 10: living conditions aren't great. And somebody called it the working 244 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:01,480 Speaker 10: man's palace, and these places are elaborate. By the turn 245 00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:03,720 Speaker 10: of the century, saloons. 246 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 1: Became the primary targets for the carry nations of the world, 247 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: as did the immigrants who frequented them. Even though prohibition 248 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:13,640 Speaker 1: was not technically an anti immigrant policy. 249 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:17,800 Speaker 11: Prohibition developed as a movement to change laws to prevent 250 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 11: access to alcohol. 251 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:23,800 Speaker 1: As its proponents began trying to force it on the country, 252 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,640 Speaker 1: the battle lines became clear. On the dry side was 253 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,120 Speaker 1: the Temperance movement, zealous and all too willing to throw 254 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: in their lot with outright racists. On the other side 255 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: a whole lot of German, Italian, Irish and Jewish immigrants. 256 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: Here's historian David Goldberg Well. 257 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 2: Prohibition played a huge role in what you might call 258 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:46,440 Speaker 2: the culture the nineteen twenties. 259 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:48,440 Speaker 1: We can only get in touch with David over the phone, 260 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: which is why it kind of sounds like he's calling. 261 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:52,240 Speaker 1: From the nineteen twenties. 262 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 2: Prohibition had been favored by those who were Protestants, and 263 00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 2: the major organization that had pushed the Prohibition Amendment, the 264 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 2: Anti Saloon League, was tied to the Protestant churches, and 265 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,280 Speaker 2: prohibitions had been motivated by a great deal of anti 266 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 2: immigrant sentiment because many of those who were members of 267 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,800 Speaker 2: this organization, the Anti Saloon League, were specially hostile the immigrants, 268 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:20,600 Speaker 2: specially immigrants from Catholic backgrounds. 269 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: David's not exaggerating in the slightest. Before long, Catholics across 270 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:28,960 Speaker 1: America were being smeared as not only drunkards, but traders 271 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,160 Speaker 1: as well. Alexander Getler was born Jewish but married an 272 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: Irish Catholic girl and then converted. That means he left 273 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:40,680 Speaker 1: one faith targeted by the dry movement, only to join another. 274 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: The Anti Saloon League's efforts were one of the first 275 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 1: instances of single issue lobbying to dramatically influence American politics. 276 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 10: They drafted model legislation and said, you support what we do, 277 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 10: here's a sample law. Maybe you could write a law 278 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:59,440 Speaker 10: like this that still goes on With interest groups. They 279 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 10: created me bill lists of people they knew who would 280 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 10: vote for dry candidates. People do that today, Every interest 281 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:06,399 Speaker 10: group does that today. 282 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:09,719 Speaker 9: Your position, if you were a politician on other issues 283 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:12,439 Speaker 9: was meaningless to them if you were okay on the 284 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:13,480 Speaker 9: prohibition issue. 285 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: The Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti Saloon League 286 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 1: were the two main organizations carrying the torch and or 287 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:25,479 Speaker 1: occasionally hatchet for prohibition. They were the definition of single 288 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: issue voters, and when they found a candidate willing to 289 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:30,800 Speaker 1: vote for prohibition, they would go all in to get 290 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:31,720 Speaker 1: their guy elected. 291 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:33,600 Speaker 9: I think one of the key things that one has 292 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 9: to know about prohibition there was never any education that 293 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:37,760 Speaker 9: a majority of Americans believed in it. 294 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: In other words, when dry candidate's won, it didn't necessarily 295 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,400 Speaker 1: mean they'd won a majority of voters' hearts and minds. 296 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:48,720 Speaker 1: It just meant that the WCTU had an influential group 297 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:53,080 Speaker 1: of voters who could swing elections, and it worked time 298 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,440 Speaker 1: and time again. State after state went dry. 299 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:00,960 Speaker 7: The Anti Saloon League, the main lobbyist organization for temperance, 300 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:04,640 Speaker 7: use this moment really to the emptyent degree. 301 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:06,240 Speaker 1: That's historian Garrett Peck. 302 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:11,320 Speaker 7: They stigmatize alcohol, they turn beer drinking into treason, and 303 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 7: they basically question the patriotism of every German American. 304 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,719 Speaker 1: Here are a few actual lines from the Anti Saloon 305 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:19,880 Speaker 1: League's propaganda. 306 00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:22,719 Speaker 4: The breweries and the saloons of the country continue to 307 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,640 Speaker 4: waste foodstuffs, fuel. 308 00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:26,200 Speaker 12: And manpower to impair. 309 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 4: The efficiency of labors and the maniance factories and even 310 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:34,200 Speaker 4: immunitions plants near which saloons are located. German brewers in 311 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,800 Speaker 4: this country have rendered thousands of men inefficient and thus 312 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,120 Speaker 4: crippling the Republic in its war on the Prussian militarism. 313 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:43,760 Speaker 4: How can any loyal citizens vote for a trade that 314 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:47,960 Speaker 4: is aidy a pro German alliance. Everything that is pro 315 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:52,160 Speaker 4: German is anti American. Everything that is pro German. 316 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:52,840 Speaker 12: Must go. 317 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,200 Speaker 1: To me. This is starting to sound like just good 318 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:03,800 Speaker 1: old fashioned prejudice and alcohol just the latest convenient issue 319 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:08,280 Speaker 1: to inflame people's fears. The war unleashed a tidal wave 320 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:12,000 Speaker 1: of immigrant and ethnic hatred, all dauled up in red, 321 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,480 Speaker 1: white and blue. As one Wisconsin politician put it, we 322 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:17,639 Speaker 1: have German enemies across the water. 323 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,560 Speaker 4: We have German enemies in this country too, and worst 324 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:24,360 Speaker 4: of all, our German enemies, the most treacherous, the most menacing. 325 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:29,120 Speaker 4: Perhaps Schlitz Blats and Miller turns out. 326 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: Fear mongering beer boycotts are as American as hot dogs, 327 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,800 Speaker 1: which incidentally got their name around this time too, because 328 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:40,160 Speaker 1: Frankfurter sounded a little too German. I'm assuming sauerkrowd also 329 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:44,720 Speaker 1: became liberty cabbage and German breweries became targets. 330 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,439 Speaker 11: Caps, twits, blats, and killer. 331 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:50,920 Speaker 1: Watch your glass. 332 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:55,960 Speaker 4: The ug killer, don't eat that brat, don't drink those 333 00:19:56,119 --> 00:19:57,880 Speaker 4: such or don't check. 334 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,200 Speaker 12: You out in fu Oh. 335 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,800 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventeen, the US entered the war. That year, 336 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,760 Speaker 1: Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, which gave the government the 337 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: power to ban alcohol sales. All that was left was 338 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: for Congress to actually use its new power. Finally, after 339 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:22,480 Speaker 1: almost a century of organizing, sloganeering, and hectoring, the dryes 340 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:27,160 Speaker 1: got their way. Prohibition became law with the Volstead Act. 341 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:31,399 Speaker 1: But that raises a very critical question. Who the hell's 342 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: going to enforce it? Will meet them after the break. 343 00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: In a nondescript office building somewhere in the nation's capital, 344 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,639 Speaker 1: a man stands over a beaker of liquid. He's white, 345 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:55,199 Speaker 1: middle aged hair starting to thin, heavy circular glasses peering 346 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,600 Speaker 1: over his experiment like the eyes of doctor tj Eckelberg. 347 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,199 Speaker 1: And not to get all middle school English teacher on 348 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,639 Speaker 1: you here, but just like those famous eyes from The 349 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,639 Speaker 1: Great Gatsby, James Duran was looking down on nineteen twenties 350 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,840 Speaker 1: America with more than a little bit of judgment. Duran 351 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: is a chemist and an avid supporter of the dry movement. 352 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: Mild mannered, methodical, a hard worker with a keen scientific mind. 353 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,360 Speaker 1: He busies himself with government work, while his wife dedicates 354 00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: her time to the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In fact, 355 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:30,879 Speaker 1: she'll go on to author a book of non alcoholic 356 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: cocktail recipes. There are even substitutes for baking recipes that 357 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:36,840 Speaker 1: happen to involve alcohol. 358 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 4: Mince pie is delicious without brandy if made properly. 359 00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,960 Speaker 1: Not to nitpick here, missus Duran, but the alcohol bakes away. 360 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:50,560 Speaker 1: People aren't out here getting drunk off pie. But in 361 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,040 Speaker 1: the Duran's defense, people in nineteen twenty can find a 362 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,840 Speaker 1: way to get drunk off just about anything. In fact, 363 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:00,959 Speaker 1: that's precisely James Durant's problem. See James is a chemist 364 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,359 Speaker 1: for the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the predecessor to the IRS. 365 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,919 Speaker 1: If you're wondering why the IRS needs chemists, you're not alone. 366 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,399 Speaker 1: But as Thomas Pegram says, it's something that still happens today. 367 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:14,480 Speaker 1: You see evidence of it. Anytime you walk into a 368 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:15,080 Speaker 1: liquor store. 369 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,120 Speaker 11: You go get your rum or risky, and it's got 370 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 11: that tape on it at the top that that's a 371 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:22,919 Speaker 11: sign that the Federal Excise Text has been passed. So 372 00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 11: there's a tradition of internal revenue regulating alcohol. 373 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,560 Speaker 1: The thing is, alcohol has a lot of different uses. 374 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:36,040 Speaker 1: In addition to being a wonderful social lubricant, it's commonly 375 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:40,160 Speaker 1: used as a solvent in industrial chemistry, a medical disinfectant, 376 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,760 Speaker 1: and as fuel. But I bet you've never been offered 377 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:47,240 Speaker 1: a medical alcohol swab as an apparitive, at least I 378 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:49,880 Speaker 1: hope not. And there's a really good reason for that. 379 00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:54,200 Speaker 1: It's not the same stuff. Alcohol you're not supposed to 380 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:58,480 Speaker 1: drink gets denatured. In other words, it's made unnatural by 381 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,640 Speaker 1: adding a lot of really bad chemtmicals. These chemicals don't 382 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: diminish the alcohol's industrial value, but they make it really 383 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,879 Speaker 1: hard to drink, which is the whole point you're not 384 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,360 Speaker 1: supposed to drink it. All of this allows the IRS 385 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: to draw a chemical distinction between industrial alcohol and all 386 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:21,040 Speaker 1: that other yummy stuff you're supposed to drink. And the 387 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:24,399 Speaker 1: reason all this matters to the IRS is because different 388 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:28,600 Speaker 1: types of alcohol get taxed differently, and Uncle Sam needs 389 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: a way to ensure nobody skirts the tax code by 390 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,520 Speaker 1: making drinking alcohol out of the stuff you're supposed to 391 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,520 Speaker 1: be using to sterilize needles. Since nineteen oh seven, James 392 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:43,199 Speaker 1: duran has been proudly polluting, sorry, denaturing, industrial alcohol in 393 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:47,480 Speaker 1: service of our nation's tax code. But with the passage 394 00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,679 Speaker 1: of the Volstead Act, James job suddenly becomes crucial not 395 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,520 Speaker 1: only to tax enforcement, but to enforcement of the new 396 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:56,320 Speaker 1: nationwide dry law. 397 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 12: And so you had this prohibition unit. 398 00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 11: It was originally called tied to the Internal Revenue Service 399 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,320 Speaker 11: in the Treasury Department, you know, not Justice, you know, 400 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 11: which usually enforces the laws. 401 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,600 Speaker 1: Yep, and its infinite wisdom, Congress has decided to make 402 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:17,159 Speaker 1: alcohol illegal and to make the Irs enforce it. James 403 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,040 Speaker 1: Durant's job is about to get a whole lot more interesting. 404 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: And he's not the only one you ever see. Mister 405 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:35,359 Speaker 1: Smith goes to Washington. It's an old Hollywood classic, A 406 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,840 Speaker 1: Scout troop leader from the American West, played by a 407 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 1: yet again Jimmy Stewart. What's with this guy? Hi, I'm 408 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:46,639 Speaker 1: Jimmy Stewart, and basically I just play every American archetype 409 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: under the sun. You see. Anyway, he gets hand picked 410 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:52,119 Speaker 1: for a Senate seat by a bunch of fat cats. 411 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: He comes into Congress still brushing the Oregon trail dust 412 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,440 Speaker 1: off his necktie. The political bosses think he's such a rube. 413 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 1: They can pull his strings and he'll be none the wiser. 414 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,640 Speaker 1: Of course, they get him all wrong. Why well, they 415 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,600 Speaker 1: think loving the founding fathers and reciting their speeches by 416 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: heart makes him a naive bumpkin. But that turns out 417 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,840 Speaker 1: to be exactly what lets him see right through their 418 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,000 Speaker 1: greedy schemes. He's got principles. God damn it. Oh wait, 419 00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:24,800 Speaker 1: I mean nag nabbitt, And that means something. In America, 420 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:26,880 Speaker 1: all you people don't. 421 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,520 Speaker 12: Know about loss causes. The only cause is worth fighting. 422 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:37,200 Speaker 1: But two decades before mister Smith, another plucky Westerner arrives 423 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 1: in DC for real. Her name is Mabel Walker Willebrandt. 424 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,800 Speaker 1: She's a rising legal star, the first woman in Los 425 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,000 Speaker 1: Angeles to serve as a public defender, and the parliamentarian 426 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,520 Speaker 1: of the city's Women Lawyers Club. She made a name 427 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,800 Speaker 1: for herself providing free counsel to sex workers, and she's 428 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:59,399 Speaker 1: already proven that she can captivate a courtroom. Mabel is 429 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,159 Speaker 1: a trail blo, a crusading attorney who never hesitates to 430 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,879 Speaker 1: stand up for women, definitely not easy in nineteen twenty, 431 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:11,000 Speaker 1: she has a well earned reputation for defying men's expectations. 432 00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,680 Speaker 1: So when President Warren G. Harding begins searching for someone 433 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,080 Speaker 1: to lead the charge for federal prohibition, a host of 434 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:23,160 Speaker 1: California lawyers and judges tell him we want Walker wille Brandt. 435 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,400 Speaker 1: Harding offers an interview. Mabel says farewell to her parents 436 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,840 Speaker 1: in Cali and rides the rails across the country full 437 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 1: of confidence she'll be hired as Assistant Attorney General of 438 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,680 Speaker 1: the United States. And when I think of her stepping 439 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,760 Speaker 1: off the train with her big canvas bag and her 440 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,320 Speaker 1: hair and tight braids over her ears, I see a 441 00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,240 Speaker 1: lot of that mister Smith's story. I mean, Jimmy may 442 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: not have had the braids. But as Mabel catches a 443 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: trolley through the busy streets of DC, she's also riding 444 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,960 Speaker 1: into a world she doesn't know. At just thirty two, 445 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,680 Speaker 1: Mabel has a resume that would make more most lawyers 446 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:05,200 Speaker 1: in Washington green with envy, But enforcing prohibition remains an 447 00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:11,119 Speaker 1: unenviable and largely untested task, because by nineteen twenty, the 448 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:15,320 Speaker 1: national experiment in prohibition is going pretty much exactly like 449 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:19,639 Speaker 1: Getler and Norris had predicted. Enterprising Americans find all sorts 450 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,400 Speaker 1: of ways to skirt the law, from making moonshine out 451 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:24,879 Speaker 1: in the boonies to smuggling in the good stuff from 452 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,600 Speaker 1: across the Canadian border, to going full mad scientist and 453 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,960 Speaker 1: making Franken cocktails out of industrial alcohols. If this thing's 454 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,479 Speaker 1: going to actually last, the Feds are going to need 455 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,960 Speaker 1: a steady hand at the helm of the brand new 456 00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:39,240 Speaker 1: prohibition unit. 457 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,199 Speaker 9: She didn't particularly believe in prohibition, but she believed in 458 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,720 Speaker 9: the law, and she believed in her assignment. And if 459 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:47,640 Speaker 9: this is what you want me to do, damn it all, 460 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 9: I'm going to do it. 461 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: So despite her reservations, Mabel aces her interview with the 462 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:59,200 Speaker 1: Attorney General. Then, with his stamp of approval, she catches 463 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:00,879 Speaker 1: a cab to the White House for a face to 464 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:04,520 Speaker 1: face meeting with President Warren Harding. Harding and his Attorney 465 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,480 Speaker 1: General had a long history together. They were something of 466 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 1: an old boys club, backroom deals, etc. Mabel was a 467 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: buy the book's West Coast lady trying to break in. 468 00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:18,480 Speaker 1: All that is to say that whatever her principles. She 469 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,080 Speaker 1: needed to know how to play ball if she wanted 470 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:21,639 Speaker 1: this job. 471 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,240 Speaker 5: Give me the authority and let me have my pick 472 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 5: of three hundred men, and I'll make this country as 473 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 5: dry as is humanly possible. 474 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: As the story goes, President Harding told Mabel, there's only 475 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: one thing against you. You're too young. Mabel takes what 476 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,320 Speaker 1: Harding gives her and sends it right back at him. 477 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 5: I'll outgrow it. 478 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: She knocks the interview out of the park. She gets 479 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,960 Speaker 1: the job. It's a huge moment for Mabel and for 480 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,680 Speaker 1: the country. Mabel Walker Willebrandt is now the highest ranking 481 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:58,040 Speaker 1: woman in government. She's young and ambitious, and in all 482 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,880 Speaker 1: likelihood she's thinking that if she plays is her cards right, 483 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: she could get herself a federal judge ship or even 484 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,960 Speaker 1: become America's first female Attorney general. But the reaction in 485 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: the press is sadly predictable. These are actual headlines from 486 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: the time. 487 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,640 Speaker 4: LA Woman to fight wetts Man's job is given to 488 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 4: missus Willibrandt by Harding, California. Woman gets federal plumb may 489 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 4: want to primp up extra extra woman swayed by logic. 490 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 4: New Assistant Attorney General is not emotional. 491 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,280 Speaker 1: The media was already on Harding's case for handing out 492 00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,440 Speaker 1: jobs to his friends and political allies, and now they 493 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 1: were going to turn that anger on Mabel with an 494 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,880 Speaker 1: extra layer of misogyny just for kicks. When she announces 495 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,400 Speaker 1: to the papers that she's not giving interviews until she's 496 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: gotten her feet under her, one paper proclaims. 497 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 4: A woman who was not ready and willing to talk 498 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,240 Speaker 4: or be photographed has been found. 499 00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,760 Speaker 1: Mabel probably saw this coming. There's no question she's hit 500 00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,160 Speaker 1: with snide remarks every time she steps into the spotlight. 501 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,040 Speaker 1: But what she can't have prepared for is the resistance 502 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 1: she'll meet from her colleagues and the corruption she'll find 503 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 1: around every corner. All Right, Prohibition's the law of the land, 504 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 1: and President Harding has hired Mabel Walker Willebrandt to come 505 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: to DC and get to work enforcing it. Just one problem, 506 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: the apparatus that's supposed to enforce this law is less 507 00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,920 Speaker 1: a finely tuned machine and more like, well, what's the 508 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties equivalent of a shit show? I guess it's 509 00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:49,200 Speaker 1: also a shit show for starters. There's her boss, the 510 00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:50,160 Speaker 1: Attorney General. 511 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,480 Speaker 9: He was a a drunk and be corrupt. That doesn't 512 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 9: make it easy. 513 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:58,160 Speaker 1: Thanks Dan Akrant. Then there's her staff. You'd think the 514 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: newly created Prohibition Unit would be designed to resist the 515 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,200 Speaker 1: corrupting influences of the booze business. After all, most civil 516 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:07,440 Speaker 1: servants at the time had to pass a series of 517 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:12,160 Speaker 1: tests confirming their aptitude and integrity. But this new unit 518 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,800 Speaker 1: was made exempt from those tests, which. 519 00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:16,920 Speaker 9: Is another way of saying we're going to use it 520 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:18,640 Speaker 9: for political payoffs. 521 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,960 Speaker 1: Which means Mabel is essentially the meat in a corruption sandwich. 522 00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,520 Speaker 1: She's more or less the only person anywhere in the 523 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:28,840 Speaker 1: chain of command who isn't interested in taking bribes to 524 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,160 Speaker 1: look the other way. The guys enforcing this law, and 525 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: the guys overseeing the whole enterprise, they're all in somebody's pocket. 526 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,040 Speaker 9: The Secretary of Treasury who was directly in charge of enforcement, 527 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 9: Andrew Mellon. He owned Old Overhoult. 528 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 1: That's Old Overholt, the bourbon. Yeah, it's bad enough for 529 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,200 Speaker 1: any member of the cabinet to own a liquor company. 530 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,800 Speaker 1: But as Secretary of the Treasury, Melon has a major 531 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,120 Speaker 1: role to play in prohibition enforcement. He's supposed to work 532 00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:03,400 Speaker 1: closely with Mabel's office and he's James Durant's bought drunks, bribetakers, 533 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 1: liquor magnates. These are the people Mabel's supposed to work 534 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,160 Speaker 1: hand in glove with in the fight to enforce prohibition. 535 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,600 Speaker 1: Whatever the IRS gets wind of some alcohol related skull duggery, 536 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 1: they're supposed to investigate, gather evidence, and package it all 537 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,640 Speaker 1: up so the Assistant Attorney General, Mabel Walker Willebrandt can 538 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:25,320 Speaker 1: swoop in and make the arrests. Mabel then wins the case. 539 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:28,360 Speaker 1: The bootleggers get tossed in the clink, rinse, and repeat 540 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:33,680 Speaker 1: until the country goes drier than an anti masturbatory cracker. Again, 541 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 1: that's how it's supposed to work, but in practice, most 542 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,080 Speaker 1: of the people around her are either uninterested in enforcing 543 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,720 Speaker 1: dry laws or actively breaking them. 544 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,480 Speaker 5: There's one way it can be done, get at the 545 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:49,200 Speaker 5: source of supply. I know them, and I know how 546 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:51,640 Speaker 5: they could be cut off. I have no patience with 547 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 5: this policy of going after the hip pocket and speak 548 00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,320 Speaker 5: easy cases. That's like trying to dry up the Atlantic 549 00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:58,200 Speaker 5: Ocean with a blotter. 550 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,640 Speaker 1: Come as a huge relief to Mabel when she finally 551 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,160 Speaker 1: finds someone in the IRS bureaucracy who takes the law 552 00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:11,480 Speaker 1: as seriously as she does James Dran. She's an ambitious 553 00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,600 Speaker 1: lawyer in the Department of Justice. He's a behind the 554 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: scenes chemist in the Department of Treasury. Fate has brought 555 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:25,280 Speaker 1: them together. Mabel Walker Willebrandt and James Duran will enforce 556 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:29,760 Speaker 1: prohibition despite the corruption all around them. As such, they'll 557 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:34,840 Speaker 1: both quickly realize enforcement is going to require some new approaches, 558 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:40,320 Speaker 1: a new formula, if you will. But they're determined, they're idealistic, 559 00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:45,840 Speaker 1: and together these two dedicated bureaucrats are about to unleash 560 00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 1: hell on American drinkers. Next time on Snafu, we meet 561 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,480 Speaker 1: the defiant bootleggers who were already making life a nightmare 562 00:33:58,520 --> 00:33:59,840 Speaker 1: for the prohibition bureau. 563 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,600 Speaker 10: He didn't give a shit who you were, where you 564 00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 10: were from, what you did, or any of that stuff. 565 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,560 Speaker 1: Come on up, have a drink with me. And meanwhile, 566 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,840 Speaker 1: our pal Alexander Getler was back on the case in 567 00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,919 Speaker 1: New York and making some shocking discoveries. 568 00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:18,879 Speaker 3: Unless you're rich, you're drinking whatever you can get your 569 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,680 Speaker 3: hands on. So one of the cocktails of the Bowery, 570 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 3: which is a really poor neighborhood in New York was 571 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,200 Speaker 3: called Smoke and That was Fuel, Alcohol and Water. 572 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:33,239 Speaker 1: Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio, Film Nation Entertainment, and 573 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:37,560 Speaker 1: Pacific Electric Picture Company in association with Gilded Audio. It's 574 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:41,800 Speaker 1: executive produced by me Ed Helms, Milan Papelka, Mike Falbo, 575 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:46,680 Speaker 1: Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. Our lead producers are Carl 576 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:51,120 Speaker 1: Nellis and Alyssa Martino. This episode was written by Nevin Calla, Poly, 577 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: Stephen Wood, Carl Nellis, and a kemedy Ekpo, with additional 578 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,880 Speaker 1: writing and story editing from Alissa Martino and Ed Helms. 579 00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:02,120 Speaker 1: Additional production from Stephen Wood. Tory Smith is our associate producer. 580 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: Our story editor is nicky Stein. Our production assistants are 581 00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 1: Nevin Calla, Polly and A kimminy Ekpo. Fact checking by 582 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,800 Speaker 1: Charles Richter. Our creative executive is Brett Harris, Editing music 583 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:16,720 Speaker 1: and sound design by Ben Chug Engineering and technical direction 584 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:20,320 Speaker 1: by Nick Dooley Andrew Chug is Gilded Audio's creative director. 585 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:24,320 Speaker 1: Theme music by Dan Rosatto. The role of Mabel Walker 586 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:28,040 Speaker 1: will Brandt was played by Kerrie Bische. Special thanks to 587 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:31,080 Speaker 1: Alison Cohen Daniel Welsh and ben Ryzak