Social Implications
Culture
The culture surrounding Prohibition is suspected to have affected theatres, especially considering its relationship with speakeasies. After the victory in WWI, the country attempted to normalize from the chaos of the last couple years. Protestant leaders, progressives, and women all pushed in favor of Prohibition to keep unstable families together, highlighting the emphasis on conservative values and governmental control at the time. Despite laws in place to prohibit the sale and distribution of alcohol, illegal bootlegging quickly became widespread across the country, including Los Angeles (Bradner 2019).
According to an organized bootlegger during the Prohibition era, bootlegging became a lucrative business selling to both high and low profile customers. Though the sale of alcohol was illegal, engaging in these activities were not generally considered immoral but actually quite normal. Because the desire and demand for alcohol reached consistently high levels, high scale production of fake liquor occurred often. However, distributors always lied to customers about their disingenuous products. While some of this booze was actually high quality, many were not, and caused many customers to be harmed.
Organized crime
Organized bootlegging was an entire organized production. Most speakeasies were often run by syndicates, and not a lone person. As mentioned earlier, most bootlegging involved secret codes for liquor and speakeasies among the distributors and customers. Additionally, many politicians and cops were involved with illegal alcohol dealings as well, often providing protection from arrest. (The New Yorker 1926)
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In Los Angeles specifically, “From 1921, Spring Street operators used them to share the protection of Mayor George Cryer, the thirty-second mayor of L.A. Mob boss crime syndicate Charles Crawford had his own private telephone line into city hall” (The New Yorker 1926).
Implications on theatres
Speakeasies are so fascinating because of what they contribute to culture, both during Prohibition and during modern times. During Prohibition, people weren’t allowed to go to bars because of the alcohol ban, so they likely turned to theatres as sources of entertainment. As these theatres were so popular, it’s incredibly likely that they were also venues for speakeasies, or at the very least, small circles of friends drinking alcohol illegally. The existence of speakeasies in or around the theatres (in the general DTLA area), probably increased the popularity of the theatres and their productions, and likely drove more people to them. Today, theatres, speakeasies, and bars are still incredibly popular, but they could also be viewed as competitors for night time entertainment. People go to theatres to watch other people perform, and sure, there might be alcohol and food involved, but the focus is the production on stage. Speakeasies and bars provide a different outlet, and both are places for people to let go and have some fun while sipping on their favorite drink(s). Speakeasies, however, in today’s world aren’t quite as secret as they used to be with outlet stores and hotels surrounding them as seen by this map: (USC Dornsife 2021),
but there's still an aura of secrecy around those that existed back then, as they’re arguably harder to find than bars. Secret codes and locations boost the attractiveness of a night time excursion, just as escape rooms do, and as so, it’s no wonder that they’re still popular.