20 Odd Facts & Stories From Prohibition

During the US prohibition era, medicinal liquor was fraudulently exploited in many scams. One doctor was cited for writing 475 prescriptions for whiskey in one day. Charles R. Walgreen, the founder of Walgreen's pharmacies expanded from 20 stores to a staggering 525 during the 1920s.

During Prohibition, cocktails became popular as juices were added to bootleg liquor to disguise the taste of ingredients like a dead rat and wood tar.

Kansas City blatantly ignored Prohibition. You could buy booze a few blocks down from the police station. They got away with it scot-free for all 13 years (1920 to 1933).

During Prohibition, Pabst Brewing Company stopped making beer and switched to cheese production, selling more than 8 million pounds of Pabst-ett Cheese. When Prohibition ended, the company went back to selling beer, and the cheese line was sold to Kraft.

During prohibition, Congress had their own bootlegger (George Cassiday) so senators and congressmen could still drink alcohol.

In 1920, during US Prohibition, a Johns Hopkins psychologist conducted a study to see whether or not people are better at playing Darts while drunk. The government allowed him to purchase 34 gallons of whiskey, as scientific research was a valid exception to Prohibition.

During Prohibition, Theodore Geisel took up the pseudonym Dr. Seuss after being banned from his college humor magazine for drinking gin on campus.

A "blind pig" was a lower-class establishment that sold alcohol during Prohibition (in contrast to a higher-class "speakeasy"). The owner would charge customers to see an attraction (such as an animal) and then serve a "complimentary" alcoholic beverage, thus circumventing the law.

During Prohibition in the United States, Winston Churchill referred publicly to the Constitutional amendment banning alcohol as "an affront to the whole history of mankind."

Prohibition agent Izzy Einstein bragged that he could find liquor in any city in under 30 minutes. In Chicago it took him 21 minutes. In Atlanta 17 minutes, and Pittsburgh just 11 minutes. But New Orleans set the record of 35 seconds. Einstein asked his taxi driver where to get a drink, and the driver handed him one.