Maps & Evidence
L.A. Theatres and Tunnels
This map shows potential overlap between theatres and tunnels in downtown Los Angeles during prohibition. Tunnels are represented by blue squares while theatres are represented by yellow circles. We notice that at least half of the blue squares are relatively close to yellow circles, which means that at least half of the tunnels were relatively close to the theatres. This suggests the speakeasies may have well been located in or near these theatres.
For example, when looking at the area where several tunnels are quite near the California theatre and the geographic location today, there is now a Melanie’s Wine Parlor that is popular today along West 3rd Street (Dorsey 2021).
Suspected Speakeasies
With this map, we’ve color coded the theatres around downtown Los Angeles based on which may have been speakeasies. The darkest color, burgundy, indicates a high likelihood of the theatre being a speakeasy, as well as, in some cases, representing confirmed locations of known speakeasies during Prohibition. On the other hand, the lighter colored dots symbolize theatres with a lower likelihood of being speakeasies.
Our research conveyed there were confirmed speakeasies in downtown Los Angeles, but we were unsure if there were speakeasies in theatres. In creating this map, we rated each historic theatre 1-5 based on how likely it was that the theatre may have also been home to a speakeasy, with 1 being extremely unlikely, and 5 being highly likely. For the few theatres that we rated a 5, our belief that there could have been a speakeasy comes from knowledge of the theatre’s basement space, various sources, and any other evidence we were able to gather through this project. When clicking on a specific theatre, you will find the “Speakeasy_rate_1-5”, the value for which the theatre was rated with, and “Proof”, the evidence leading to the specific rating of that particular theatre being a suspected speakeasy.
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You can also view tunnels in blue, again suggesting an association between tunnels and theatres and the likelihood of speakeasies. It is also interesting to note that as stated earlier with tunnels congregating the area where theatres were along West 3rd Street, there are, in addition and in this case, theatres with a high likelihood of being speakeasies.
Although we were not able to connect exactly all entrances/exits to the tunnel system used for speakeasies, it is noteworthy to pinpoint other relevant landmarks near speakeasies. For instance, City Hall was near (suspected) speakeasies when our mapping is compared to the image below with City Hall located along Broadway during the 1900s (Dickerson 2021). City Hall being near (suspected) speakeasies is also prevalent when looking at liquor raids and where illegal booze bought in Washington as depicted in this map: (International News Photos 1932)
This gives us some insight into the class and status of those who may have been involved in the speakeasy business, who may have included city officials and so, those financially capable of living in these areas.
Furthermore, other relevant landmarks in the vicinity of the suspected speakeasies of DTLA are the transportation systems, specifically streetcar lines and suburban rapid transit lines.
[image link] In this map of DTLA (right) in the 1920s with streetcar lines, rapid transit and railroad systems mapped onto the same streets we are looking into, we can see that there were streetcar lines along Broadway and both streetcar and rapid transit lines on Hill St (Creason 2014). These streets then were quite bustling; in fact, Los Angeles became known to have the “best public streetcar system in the country” in the 1920s and using these streetcars were affordable with the price being “a nickel, a dime or two bits” (Meares 2019). This reveals more of the socio-economic status of the speakeasy users, reaffirming how possible speakeasy users may have been from lower class. This also significantly meant more individuals from other areas travelling and visiting the area (City of Los Angeles 2021). Consequently, those outside may have flocked over to DTLA and maybe were even frequent speakeasy users themselves.
Disclaimers
Data and visualizations came from secondary sources. Suspected speakeasies are speculations based on our research.