Prohibition made lawbreakers of ordinary drinkers and was a bonanza for gangsters, particularly in St. Louis.
ST. LOUIS • Crowds formed outside the city's two breweries and jammed "watch parties" in hotels, restaurants and neighborhood diners. The festive bustle befitted a New Year's Eve.
Which it was, in a way. The countdown led to 12:01 a.m. Friday, April 7, 1933, when beer would be legal again after 13 long years. No more need for nasty home brew.
More than 25,000 enthusiasts kept vigil outside Anheuser-Busch Inc., South Broadway and Arsenal Street, where a revived workforce had prepared 45,000 cases of beer and was busily brewing more. An additional 10,000 people crowded Forest Park Avenue at Spring Avenue, where Joseph Griesedieck's new operation produced Falstaff, a brand name he had bought from former brewer William Lemp Jr. shortly after Prohibition began in 1920.
Griesedieck had 40,000 cases ready for midnight's stroke.
In November 1932, a nation that had grown tired of Prohibition's deprivations and frauds elected Franklin D. Roosevelt for president and a soakingly "wet" Democratic Congress, which quickly set about the mechanics of repeal. But removing the U.S. Constitution's 18th Amendment would take months. Congress quickly allowed beer with 3.2 percent alcohol content by finessing the definition of "intoxicant" in the Volstead Act, the reviled federal enforcement law.
Missouri, Illinois and 16 other states jumped aboard.
At midnight, the brewery whistles were overwhelmed by the roar of happy humans. Out rushed the first beer trucks, plus a Clydesdale-drawn hitch for show. August A. "Gussie" Busch Jr. spoke to a national radio audience, then went inside to greet his private guests. "Come and get it," he told them.
People outside had to be content with history's moment. Brewers shipped straight to the lucky holders of 3,763 new government permits allowing the sale of beer.
A scene from the party at the Hotel Jefferson, 12th (now Tucker) Boulevard at Locust Street, in the first hour of April 7, 1933. More than 600 people had made reservations for the ballroom in anticipation of legal beer, and cheered loudly when the first deliveries pulled up outside. (Post-Dispatch)
Delivery was prompt. At 12:08 a.m., a truck pulled up at the Elks Club, 3619 Lindell Boulevard, where Mayor-elect Bernard Dickmann led the first round. Customers at the big hotels snapped up 10-cent drafts. At 12:58 a.m., the taps flowed again at Krumm's Restaurant, 824 Pine Street, a popular beer joint before Prohibition.
At Delmar Boulevard and Kingshighway, police nabbed four gangsters for trying to hijack a beer truck.
Imbibers shouted "Prosit" — German for good cheer — and declared the first batch "as good as the old stuff." By noon, it was gone. Frantic calls for resupply swamped brewery switchboards.
The Anti-Saloon League filed suit in Jefferson City in a failed bid to stop the "menace." Grocery stores soon offered Budweiser at $2.75 per case, Falstaff for a dime less.
On Dec. 5, 1933, Utah became the 36th state to adopt the 21st Amendment, ending national Prohibition. Illinois immediately went full drinks, but Missouri dithered another month before allowing hard liquor.
St. Louis celebrates the repeal of prohibition
A waiter in a downtown hotel serves his happy customers in the early hours of April 7, 1933. Most of the hotels were crowded with people who awaited the first shipments from the city's two breweries. (Post-Dispatch)
The Elks Club building at 3619 Lindell Boulevard, where Mayor-elect Bernard F. Dickmann led the toast. The building was razed in the 1960s, the site now a parking lot for Jesuit Hall, at Lindell and Grand Boulevard. (Post-Dispatch)
Barmaid Orpha Matthews serves beer in the diner at the American Hotel Annex, 615 Walnut Street. By noon on April 7, 1933, St. Louisans had drunk the first batch dry. Calls for more swamped the switchboards at the Anheuser-Busch and Falstaff breweries, the only ones ready for legal beer. (Post-Dispatch)
Post-Dispatch editorial cartoonist Daniel Fitzpatrick drew this for the editions of April 7, 1933, the first day of legal beer sales since Prohibition began in 1920. The copy is from the newspaper's microfilm files. (Post-Dispatch)
Saloonkeeper Leo J. Sullivan pours legal whiskey at his tavern at 226 Collinsville Avenue in East St. Louis shortly after national Prohibition officially was repealed on Dec. 5, 1933. Illinois was ready, but the Missouri Legislature's "dry" members stalled full repeal in Missouri until January 1934. (Post-Dispatch)
The first wagon filled with beer leaves the Anheuser-Busch brewery, pulled by Clydesdales and recorded by a movie cameraman. The brewery also dispatched a truck to Lambert Field for shipment of beer by air to the White House. August A. "Gussie" Busch praised President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his support during a live national radio broadcast from the brewery at midnight. (Post-Dispatch)
Workers at Anheuser-Busch load another truck in the early hours of April 7, 1933, the first day of legal beer since 1920. Other trucks awaiting loads lined Arsenal almost to Jefferson Avenue. (Post-Dispatch)
Potential beer retailers also needed a federal permit, obtainable from the office of Louis J. Becker, U.S. Internal Revenue collector for the St. Louis District. The scene is in the hallway outside his office in the Federal Building at Eighth and Olive streets, now called the Old Post Office, on April 2, 1933, four days before beer sales would be legal. The office issued more than 3,763 permits, most of them for St. Louis establishments. (Post-Dispatch)
St. Louis Mayor-elect Bernard F. Dickmann (left) makes the first toast of legal beer at the Elks Club, 3619 Lindell Boulevard. The first beer truck arrived there at 12:08 a.m. April 7, 1933. Dickmann declined calls for a speech, preferring to let his fellow Elks savor their beer. (Post-Dispatch)
Some of the 25,000 people gathering outside the Anheuser-Busch Co. brewery, South Broadway and Arsenal Streets, on the evening of April 6, 1933. Beer sales would become legal at midnight, and the brewery was ready with 45,000 cases of bottles and 3,000 half-barrels stored in the plant. The trucks would roll at midnight. Other trucks awaiting loading lined Arsenal almost to Jefferson Avenue. Another 10,000 people awaited the first deliveries from Joseph Griesedieck's Falstaff brewery at Forest Park and Spring avenues. (Post-Dispatch)
Seekers of permits to sell beer with 3.2 percent alcohol content line up on March 23, 1933, at the desk of B.J. Carragher, a state official, in his office in the Chemical Building downtown, at 721 Olive Street. The Congress elected in November 1932 along with President Franklin D. Roosevelt was strongly "wet," and moved quickly to rewrite the federal statute enforcing Prohibition to permit the manufacture of beer. Repealing Prohibition on all liquor would have to await an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Carragher worked for the Missouri Pure Food and Drug Department, which issued permits after the Missouri Legislature agreed to go along with 3.2 beer. (Post-Dispatch)
Drinkers in a local speakeasy toast the anticipated end of Prohibition some time in late 1932. Debate began in Congress in December 1932, and a proposed 21st Amendment to abolish the 18th was sent to the states three months later. While state legislatures were considering repeal, Congress abolished the federal Volstead Act, the enforcement statute for Prohibition. Getting rid of Volstead allowed for the sale of 3.2 beer beginning April 7, 1933. The 21st Amendment went into effect on Dec. 5, 1933. Illinois went fully wet immediately, but the Missouri Legislature dithered for a month before allowing full fare in taverns. (Post-Dispatch)
Read more stories from Tim O'Neil's Look Back series.
