The Prohibition Era is an important part of American history and a subject that has been explored recently, in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which returned for a second season on September 25, 2011, and the PBS film Prohibition, which premiered on October 2, 2011.
Prohibition started in response to the social problem of excessive alcohol consumption. Men went to the taverns, profiting the German brewers, and homes fell apart. The tavern industry was associated with unsavory activities, such as gambling, prostitution and corruption.
Women, in an effort to save the American family, led the charge against alcohol, forming the Women's Temperance Union in 1874. Leaders of the movement included Carry Nation, Frances Willard and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The women started by demanding temperance, then outright Prohibition.
Prohibition was passed into law in the early 1919 and went into effect in 1920. The program, while well intended, was not a smashing success. Prohibition had the unintended consequence of starting a boom industry for bootleggers and gangsters, who profited off of illegal liquor sales. Some of the well known gangsters associated with Prohibition are Al Capone, Arnold Rothstein and Lucky Luciano.
Prohibition on PBS
Prohibition, a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, is an excellent film that describes the events leading up to Prohibition, the Prohibition Era and the results of the social program to legislate behavior.
Set in the era of bathtub gin, bootleggers and speakeasies, 'Prohibition' tells the true story of the rise, rule and fall of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was called the Noble Experiment, but it was in fact one of America’s most notorious civic failures, an object lesson in the challenge of legislating human behavior - PBS
Peter Coyote narrates the film, which also uses the voice talents of well known actors, including Tom Hanks, Jeremy Irons, Adam Arkin, Paul Giamatti, John Lithgow, Oliver Platt, Sam Waterson, Samuel L. Jackson, Patricia Clarkson and Josh Lucas. Prohibition features music by Wynton Marsalis.
Prohibition uses narration, pictures, video clips and excerpts from letters to tell the story of the 18th Amendment. It is a fascinating piece of American history, tied to the stories of German brewers, immigrants, living conditions and World War I.
The first part of the film premiered on October 2, 2011. Check PBS local listings to find the program.
Boardwalk Empire
Boardwalk Empire is the award-winning, critically acclaimed HBO series about Prohibition. The series follows Atlantic City Treasurer, Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson, based on the real life treasurer Nucky Johnson.
Steve Buscemi stars as Nucky Thompson in Boardwalk Empire, which starts at the dawn of Prohibition, in 1920. Nucky Thompson is more crooked politician than gangster, but the character associates with the gangsters of the era, including Al Capone (Stephen Graham), Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) and Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg).
The series opened at a Women's Temperance meeting, where Nucky Thompson pledged his support and met Margaret Schroeder (Kelly MacDonald) who would become his mistress. On that same day, the duplicitous Thompson celebrated the start of Prohibition at a party.
Boardwalk Empire shows the glitzy veneer of Atlantic City, but the series also depicts the seamy underside and violence of the era. The series is a dramatization, so much of the action is fictional, but it is based on the historic Prohibition Era. Boardwalk Empire a Prohibition Era Drama on HBO
Boardwalk Empire can be seen on HBO Premium Cable Television. New episodes currently air on Sunday nights.
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