Play Guide [356k PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

The Great GatsbyPROHIBITIONcame to be known as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.” This event is representative oframpant violence present during Prohibition. Although the government had hired federalProhibition agents (police) to raid speakeasies and arrest bootleggers, these agents’salaries were inadequete, which led to a high rate of bribery. In addition, the justicesystem failed to keep up. Prisons were overcrowded and defendants were kept there forextensive lengths of time awaiting their trial dates.“I make my money by supplying a public demand. If I break the law, mycustomers, who number hundreds of the best people in Chicago, are as guiltyas I am. Everybody calls me a racketeer. I call myself a businessman.”– Bootlegger Al CaponeProponents of Prohibition had anticipatedthat the dry era would bring economicprosperity because former drinkers wouldput their money into other industries.This hypothesis did not come to fruition;instead, many industries suffered as aconsequence of Prohibition. Prohibitionalso led to the elimination of thousands ofjobs and stinted state tax revenues whosebudget was dependent on excise taxes inliquor sales.Advertisement for the Prohibition Party from the 1920s. Littleknown fact: the Prohibition Party still exists today!The goal of the temperance movement was to safeguard society from the harmful effectsof alcohol and improve Americans’ quality of life. It took almost 100 years of activismbefore the 18th Amendment was ratified, but the genuine prohibition of alcohol failedto materialize, and ironically created the opposite effect: it fostered intemperance,criminality, political corruption, and hypocrisy. The failure of Prohibition can beattributed to a lack of public support and the government’s ineffective enforcement ofthe law. Even prominent citizens and politicians later admitted to having used alcoholduring Prohibition, including President Warren Harding who had publically supportedthe temperance movement.“There is as much of a chance of repealing the eighteenth amendment as there isfor a humming bird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied toits tail. This country is for temperance and prohibition and it is going to continue toelect members of Congress who believe in that.”– Senator Morris Sheppard, 1930Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 23