Hello everyone, and welcome to America under the Microscope advanced episode. Hello, lulu.

Hello, James.

So we're going to continue our talk about prohibition. And this time we're gonna get into, first of all, who was selling all the alcohol that was sold during this time, where it was illegal？Any guesses?

They were sold in a speakeasy. Right? I don't know. I would just imagine it was the original bar owners and they just turned their bars into speakeasies during the prohibition.

No it was for the most part organized crime. So was these, the mafia and gangs who ran these speakeasies, the smuggling and manufacturing of alcohol because the government made it a crime to do these things.

You needed criminal connections?

But criminals are the ones who stepped in to fill the demand. People still wanted to drink. They were willing to break the law to provide this demand.

Because there were quite a few speakeasies. So were they like different gangs or?

Yeah, so different gangs, different parts of the country. And in bigger cities different gangs, they had territory, they ran different speakeasies or one gang may have only smuggled and then sold to different speakeasies, and so on and so forth.

So it sounds a bit like drug rings.

It is actually very similar. And this did lead to violent confrontations and gang wars.

Like turf wars.

Over territory, and also against law enforcement coz the police did raid these places. They try to get informants, they broke down the doors, then you can go online and see lots of pictures from this era where police are dumping illegal alcohol down the drain, burning barrels, arresting these gang members who were in part of the alcohol trade.

But they were only arresting people who are selling and manufacturing these alcohol, right? Not people who were caught drinking there.

Right. But you still have to be careful, because if you were one of the patrons, you don't wanna be seen either. Because if you were a patron that told the police about the speakeasy and the gang finds out, you did that...

You are dead.

You're dead.

So you don't wanna be seen as a possible informant . That period, I read it from some books or watched a few documentaries. There was one name that kept popping up. It was Al Capone. It seems to be one of those names that every American at least has heard of.

The most notorious criminal of American history, Al Capone. So Al Capone was a gang leader in Chicago, and he ran a lot of the alcohol trade during the prohibition era. And it made him very rich. He was incredibly difficult to stop, because what he did with the money here is actually build things like soup kitchens and help the local area.

It's like a crime boss with heart of gold.

Well, it's actually for his own benefit, because if you make the population happy with you, they're not going to turn you into the police.

So on the side it's he basically did charity work.

Right. You gotta think of the idiom, you don't bite the hand that feeds you.

True.

But he was eventually caught but not for alcohol related crimes. He was caught for tax evasion because he didn't pay taxes on the illegal alcohol that he sold.

So he was thrown into jail.

He went to prison, he went to Alcatraz prison, which is the big famous prison island that is in San Francisco.

All for tax evasion.

Yes. For tax evasion.

Interesting to go for a king pin in like organized crime. Crime aside, what about the prohibition era left on the whole American psyche? Like we're starting to mention last time. First I would like to share with you one of my observations. It's like people think perhaps a lot of our listeners would group Americans and British in the same group as native English speakers. But one of the biggest difference that I observed between Americans and English and British people for that matter is really different attitude towards alcohol. In Britain. I would say it's very difficult to make friends to socialize without alcoholic drinks. So they have a very very tolerant if not very positive attitudes towards drinking. But it's not like Americans don't drink, they you do, but it's not something that people are proud of, it's not something you just brag about, for example.

So it isn't because you can even see this. Americans don't brag about their drinking. Some do. But for the most part they don't. Americans are more likely to point out. They think people have a drinking problem, drinking too much. And a lot of Americans still treat bars is kind of a seedy dirty place instead of a place that you just socialize. So it still has a fairly negative reputation. I mean, I'm a drinker, my family all drinks, but we don't drink all the time. We don't drink to excess. And compared to other cultures that have a much richer drinking culture, Americans come nowhere close.

And you said that people still have that negative view of alcohol. Is it also related to partially to religion, for example?

Very much is related to them because if you go back to the basic episode. So we talked about those social movements, one of those social movements, one of the groups was religious based, or many of them were based in different religious groups, which many religions are against alcohol consumption.

Did they believe that alcohol consumption would lead to some sort of moral corruption?

Right.That's a very common belief.

I think you can find that kind of idea in China, even though it's not linked with religion, but it still, I think it also depends on where you from. If you're from a more conservative community, from a smaller town or if you're in big cities. I mean nowadays in China, if you're in big cities like the tier one cities, Beijing, Shanghai going to a bar with your friends after work, it's seen as quite normal. But in smaller towns, sometimes people still see going to bars, like you said, kind of seedy. It's not something to be proud of, so to speak. But overall, would you say the prohibition era lead to a decline in drinking habits?

Absolutely. Before prohibition, Americans drink quite a lot in fact. It was, you drink all the time. But after prohibition, drinking habits decline and never recovered to pre-prohibition levels, which honestly probably is a good thing.

But this question is perhaps more relevant to some of our listeners who are planning to go to America, especially for studies or for work. When they're going to Britain, I usually to say to them that you need to socialize. If you wanna socialize to fit in, you need to go out with British people to pubs, even if you don't drink alcohol. But in America do you have to socialize with people in that way? Do you have to go to bars?

No, not at all. You can socialize people in community groups. You can socialize in cafes and stuff like that. You can socialize in bars and some people do that, but is absolutely not a social imperative.

So for those of you who don't really drink, maybe that's piece of good news. Talking about Americans are also more aware of people with drinking problems. Let's very briefly talk about AA. This is something I think they do have it in some other countries, but it's not as big as in America. By the way, guys, AA does not mean AA in Chinese when you're talking about paying the bill. AA in America is alcoholics anonymous, is a group for people to meet up together voluntarily to get rid of their binge drinking habits.

Their goal is to help people fight addiction because alcohol is addictive. And people go to AA, because they feel they have a problem or they do have a problem. And they feel that AA can help them get over their problem. And we have many other groups, not just AA, but other groups or therapies or things that you can go to help fight alcohol addiction. Most Americans are out to, even all Americans are usually very supportive and positive to people who choose to go to these programs to help fight through alcohol addiction.

So it's like a support group.

Yeah, very much.

And if you wanna know what that is about, watched a quite popular TV show, the sitcom called Mom. and that is all about a group of former alcoholics trying to get their life back.

I haven't seen that show.

It's going into season seven now.

That's pretty long.

Yeah. So in the end, let us talk about the portrayal of the whole idea of prohibition era in media. We know that they touch upon that in the Great Gatsby.

Right. So a lot of students out there all over the world are familiar with this book. I had to read it in high school and I know so many other people who did.

Also they made the film.

More than one in fact, there's been more than one. And in this you can, they talk about these massive parties where they're drinking and having fun. And this is showing kind of the wealthy side of prohibition. Yeah, this takes place during prohibition, but since Gatsby, the character is super rich. He just has the stuff or you can get it smuggled in. So they can just have the parties at home without interference from the police. But if you wanna have a more a reference of like speakeasies, I recommend a classic Marilyn Monroe film called Some Like it Hot.

Some Like it Hot, I believe.

In the opening, seeing the film takes place in a speakeasy and you actually see them using a password to get into the speakeasy. Their speakeasy is hidden in a funeral home.

How ironic!

And there's a whole running gag of it is so the guy goes in, he orders a scotch, and the guy says, we only sell coffee. ‘Okay. I like coffee.’‘What kind of coffee do you want? ’Scotch coffee, bourbon coffee, and so on.

And so like Irish or Belgium, right?

No, they just called a coffee. And the alcohol is served in coffee cups. But it was just alcohol. It was part of the speakeasy passwords.

Very, that's not much of a password.

But it is a comedy. So it is exaggerating.

So if you want to get more of a feel of that era, read the Great Gatsby or watch the film or you can also watch Some Like it Hot.

I also recommend one more is the film Untouchables, which is also during prohibition, but it's about police going after the criminals. It's about Al Capone and the group trying to catch him. Now, the movie is not historically accurate because most movies aren't. But it does give you an idea of the police stopping the smugglers and then also how the criminals try to stay ahead of the police.

I think watching film is a great way to get a feel of that historical period and also the cultural bits that we talked about in the show.

Absolutely.

So on that note, if you have anything to share with us about prohibition era that you have learned from the show or from other sources, or if you're interested in the whole idea of speakeasies, or if you've been to any speakeasies, let us know in the comment section, we can't wait to see your comments. We'll see you next time.

Bye, everyone.

Bye.

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