From Hatchets to Hoods: The Mayhem of a Dry America
Introducing a special mini-series about Prohibition from Here’s Where It Gets Interesting with Sharon McMahon. The mini-series, From Hatchets to Hoods: The Mayhem of a Dry America, will focus on the events and people, from the rich and powerful to the ordinary citizens, that made a difference during a turbulent and influential time in our nation’s history. From the speakeasy door to the Oval Office, Prohibition brought out the best — and the worst — in America. The series begins a number of years before the iconic 18th Amendment went into effect, with a growing movement born of domestic and religious fervor, and the women who were gutsy enough to face social problems head on… a hatchet in hand.
Episode 12:
From Hoovervilles to Hummingbirds in Space
Do you celebrate National Beer Day on April 7th every year? Did you even know that we have a National Beer Day? We do! And it’s all thanks to our 32nd president, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his signing of the Cullen-Harrison Act. Celebrated across the country in 1933, the act was just one small step on the path to the ratification of the 21st Amendment and the final nail in the coffin for Prohibition. Read the show notes.
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Episode 11:
The Tide Begins to Turn
At its beginning, prohibition was spearheaded by outspoken women. Women who saw a need for social change and then set up the scaffolding to build, what they thought, would be a better America. So maybe it won’t be a surprise to hear that the repeal of Prohibition began in pretty much the same way. By the late 1920s, it was clear to many that Prohibition was a big flop. It was especially clear to one of its initial supporters who realized it was time to change her mind. Read the show notes.
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Episode 10:
Luck Be a Lady Governor
In the middle of the 1920s, when Prohibition was at its peak, leaders and law enforcement could go one of two ways: they could crack down on Volstead Act violators… or they could look the other way. Today, we’ll meet the first two women governors in the nation’s history–and a couple of lawmen–and learn how they handled their duties during Prohibition. Read the show notes.
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Episode 9:
White Squares Off Against the KKK
In its fight for a dry, anti-alcohol nation, the Anti-Saloon League recruited the Ku Klux Klan to join its mission to make Prohibition the law of the land. Klan members themselves weren’t specifically pro-Temperance, but they were happy to use dry laws as a way to target and perpetrate violence against Black Americans, immigrants, Jews, and Catholics. But the power of the Klan was beginning to fade... Read the show notes.
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Episode 8:
A Movie and a Man Who Revived the Klan
How did one of the most popular movies in the country–a blockbuster of epic proportions–fuel the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan? And how, in just a few short years, did the Klan grow from small pockets of state chapters into a national social organization with a membership in the millions? The KKK and the prohibitionists of the 1920s worked hand-in-hand to turn America into a dry, white, Protestant-ruled nation. As booze dried up in towns across the nation, white supremacy began to rise. Read the show notes.
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Episode 7:
A Cocktail Toast To the Mob
Learn about two things that go hand in hand with the enforcement of dry laws: crime and cocktails. The spread of both was a direct consequence of the 18th amendment as mobsters ruled the violent industry of bootlegging and the rough liquor they sold was made more palatable with mixers. Read the show notes.
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Episode 6:
The Suckers and Celebrities of the NYC Speakeasy Scene
In this Episode of Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, it’s a battle between the lawman and the barkeep; we’re going to explore the New York jazz and speakeasy scene. Along the way, we’ll meet a few people who embodied that old adage: sometimes appearances can be deceiving. And, of course, if there’s anywhere in time and place to reinvent yourself, it’s New York City in the 1920s. Read the show notes.
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Episode 5:
A Physician, a Rabbi, and a Bootlegger Walk into a Pharmacy
By 1920, America was officially a dry country. In theory. In practice, the law came with enough loopholes that opportunists found plenty of ways to make, trade, sell, and guzzle vast quantities of alcohol. Some turned to religion and some walked into a pharmacy with a doctor’s note. Still others knew how to rig the system so well that they made their fortunes and got away with murder. Read the show notes.
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Episode 4:
The Whiskey-Guzzling Womanizer in the White House
As the country went dry at the start of 1920, Americans were ready for a new leader. A stand-up guy, they thought, someone who reflects our morals–a man of the people. The elected Warren Harding, a handsome Ohioan who prided himself on his all-American principles. But behind closed doors, Warren Harding, 29th President of the United States, hid a plethora of dark secrets. Read the show notes.
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Episode 3:
If Mabel Had Worn Trousers
Let's meet the most powerful woman in America during the Prohibition era. Mabel Walker Willebrandt was the Assistant Attorney General and it was her job to enforce the 18th amendment and prosecute those who flouted the new laws of Prohibition. With a boss that didn’t think she’d succeed and a lazy department who didn’t want to work for a woman, Mabel went after some of the most notorious names in bootlegging… and won. Read the show notes.
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Episode 2:
How to Train Kids in the Practice of Temperance
Learn more about the crusade to turn America into a dry nation. It may surprise you that it wasn’t spearheaded by only white Christian women who disapproved of saloons and whiskey. Leaders in the growing civil rights movement also pushed for temperance, and one woman convinced the government that the path to prohibition was best paved through the public school system. Read the show notes.
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Episode 1:
Carrying a Nation into Prohibition
Welcome to the first episode in our new series, From Hatchets to Hoods: The Mayhem of a Dry America! We begin our series a number of years before the iconic 18th Amendment went into effect, with a growing movement born of domestic and religious fervor, and the women who were gutsy enough to face social problems head on… a hatchet in hand. Read the show notes.
Listen on your favorite podcast platform:
