Celebrations Deferred Until Tomorrow Night
(The Baltimore Sun, 12/5/1933)
After fourteen years, four months and five days scenes reminiscent of the night of June 30, 1919, will be enacted at hotels and elsewhere in Baltimore tomorrow night.
On that night in 1919, newspaper accounts record, few people went home. Instead they started congregating in the various bars about town at 6 P. M. for the wake of John Barleycorn—and from the accounts—it was a fitting celebration.
One old-timer reported it took him forty-five minutes to get through the lobby of the Belvedere Hotel—pushing his way through the crowd that was carrying all the liquor possible—both inside them and in their arms.
“One Big Headache”
“Baltimore was one big headache next morning,” he said.
Tonight, however, from indications (?) night, will be tame in comparison, and the big celebrations in the hotels and taverns will be tomorrow night. Hotels have arranged for cocktail parties, welcome-back parties and repeal parties. Night clubs also planned for gala festivities. Everything pointed to parties vying with those that used to greet the new year before the Eighteenth Amendment became law.
Related:
- The Rise and Fall of Prohibition in Baltimore, Maryland 1918-1933
- Happy Belated New Beer’s Eve
- H.L. Mencken — All Aboard For Back River!
- Maryland a Leader in Repealing National Prohibition
- The failed experiment of Prohibition — Baltimore Sun
“True to “The Free State” philosophy, Maryland was the only state in the union that refused to pass a law enforcing Prohibition. Legislators saw the law as a violation of Maryland’s rights as a state. We like to think our state government was ahead of the curve. They knew that Prohibition was not the right answer.”
