End Of Prohobition The Beginning Of Nightlife In The USA
By Kevin Wilkerson, The Nightlife Blogger, PubClub.com
The end of Prohibition signaled the start of nightlife as we know it in the USA.
Oh sure, there was drinking and carrying on before then, especially during Prohibition, which resulted in hidden bars called speakeasies, music in bars (especially jazz) and women going out to drink for the first time.
But what the repeal of Prohibition did with the establishement of the 21st Ammendment was to bring order to an activity that had very little, dating back to the origins of the country.
Think of it as the bar equivalent of street lights and crosswalks. Instead of everyone going in every direction whenever it pleases them, people have to wait and do so in an orderly fashion. It’s what makes civilized countries function; otherwise it’s chaos.
That’s what it was like back in the saloon and Prohibition days. But the 21st Ammendment set up rules such as a drinking age, operating hours and liquor licensing. And this set the tone for nightlife in America as we know it today.
And now let’s focus on the girls for a moment. Prior to Prohibition, women did go to and were pretty much now allowed to go out and drink. During the Roarin’ 20s, women asserted themselves, they earned the right to vote in 1920 (a year after Prohibition took effect) and they became independent in many ways. Certainly more than before.
They also wanted to do more in a bar – or speakeasy at the time — than just sit there, so they were a major reason music and dancing became a part of the nightlife scene.
It’s hard to imagine anything else today, but it was both Prohibiton and the repeal of Prohibition that set the tone for nightlife in the USA today.
Kevin Wilkerson is nightlife journalist who writes a regular column for PubClub.com
