NORMAN V. KELLY
It was a warm Saturday night during
Prohibition in downtown Peoria, Illinois as
the busy shoppers were rushing home after the stores closed. Peoria was the
center of shopping for many miles around, and Saturdays in Peoria
were so busy that just getting across the busy streets was a major task. Prohibition was still the law of the land,
starting in 1920 and ending in 1933, and once the ordinary shoppers cleared the
streets nighttime Peoria
and its denizens took over.
Peoria did not
have speakeasies because we did not need them.
That’s right…none. In the 20’s we
had, thanks to Mayor Woodruff were as many as 167 Soft Drink Parlors. As
Prohibition rolled on this number would grow to over 200 Parlors. Now these
revived taverns could not legally sell booze, beer or wine, but that did not
stop the incredible number of customers that thronged to these places. In September of 1917, the Wartime Food and Fuel
Conservation Act made it illegal to use foodstuffs to make alcoholic drinks of
any kind. Imagine that in Peoria, Illinois the city
that boasted of being the alcohol capital of the World. What that really meant to the folks of Peoria was that
ALL of the breweries and the distilleries in town were forced to shut
down. Keep in mind that was 1917, not
1920 when Prohibition became law and that meant a loss of our major places of
employment.
Right after Prohibition started, January 16, 1920, the
Roaring Twenties officially began. Now ask yourself, how could there be a roar
in the Roaring Twenties without booze?
Not to worry, here in Peoria if you
wanted a drink all you needed was the money to pay for it. On Saturday night in Peoria the Flappers, the
Jazz, the gambling and the wild times were all downtown waiting for folks to
‘come on down.’ And…come down they did.
Remember, Prohibition shut down all of our taverns and
I can tell you that that was devastating news for Peorians. We had a tremendous number of taverns then,
and they were called local or neighborhood taverns. Peoria was a mixed
bag of people and these taverns served all kinds of ethnic foods and drinks and
this law upset a lot of people. After all, our taverns were important to us in
a social function as well. Of course the
closure of the taverns and the loss of jobs at the breweries and distilleries
initially was devastating. Like always, Peoria and
Peorians over came all this and we managed to flourish. During the first ten
years of Prohibition Peoria’s
population rose just over 28,000 people.
That is impressive indeed.
Let’s go back to Saturday night in Peoria and the
Soft Drink Parlors. These taverns turned
parlors had to be careful how they sold booze to their customers…but actually
it was easy. Woodruff told Peorians that
the city was loosing about $170,000 a year in liquor license fees alone and he
meant to do something about it. He allowed the taverns to reopen as long as
they bought a Soft Drink Parlor License.
Well…they did and the fun really began.
It started a whole new soft drink business and as booze flowed down from
Canada the soft
drink parlors flourished.
As folks returned to the Parlors, the booze flowed,
the live music and entertainment came back to downtown, and life perked up
during those Prohibition and Great Depression Days. Saturday night in Peoria…it was the
‘Cat’s Meow.’
As the crowds grew hundreds of young men and women
began appearing at their special parlors.
Think of it, the parlors were not supposed to sell booze, so the young
people could hardly be turned away. It
was the time of the new Jazz craze, the new dress fads, wild dances and of
course the ‘crazy flapper.’ These young
women turned this old town up side down, smoking cigarettes, carrying flasks
and wowing the young men.
Oh, sure, we had so called ‘Dry Agents,’ but they were
busy chasing stills and bootleggers. Believe me, Saturday night in Downtown Peoria, Illinois during
Prohibition was one constant party. Of
course the youngsters were not allowed anywhere near the gambling tables, but
they had their own game to play. Things
cooled a bit during the dark days of the Great Depression, but once Prohibition
ended, Peoria got back up
on its hind legs and began to howl even louder than before. By 1934 Hiram Walker announced it would build
the largest distillery in the World right here in Peoria, Illinois. It opened
in 1935 and Peoria was back on
track.
The wild times rolled on as the gambling got more and
more entrenched, all the way up until the beginning of WW 11. Once the war started there were many, many
changes downtown as the town welcomed the soldiers from all over including Camp Ellis out in Fulton County. The gambling grew along with the
prostitution and Peoria took on a
festive look. We had 242 taverns within
the small confines of the city limits some of them open 20 and 22 hours a day. Peoria took on a
rougher, tougher reputation and finally on September 3, 1946 the casino
style gambling in Peoria ended. Of course we continued with the slot
machines, but a drastic change took over downtown. 1946 in Peoria was one of
the most important years in the reputation of Peoria, Illinois, but that’s
another story.
Editor’s Note:
Norm is a Historian and can be heard with Harry on The Red Nose Gang,
Sunday morning 7-10. WOAM, 1350 AM
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