Celebrate Prohibition Month with a Drink and a Lecture (original) (raw)

History Mon Apr 05 2010

The Chicago History Museum has an impressive lineup of events celebrating the 77th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, an era of speakeasies, Al Capone, bathtub gin, jazz, and other iconic milestones defining Windy City history.

The month-long program of events starts April 6 with New Beer's Eve, the anniversary honoring the night before Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The event at Sheffield's will showcase the history behind New Beer's Eve and the resurgence of the craft beer movement, featuring beer from craft beer icon Stone Brewing Company (whose Beer Week in Chicago started April 1).

The History Channel documentary, Rumrunners, Moonshiners and Bootleggers will be presented free with CHM admission on April 18, portraying the "Rum Wars" of the Roaring Twenties, hidden channels of liquor distribution and America's secret bars, clubs and backwoods shacks. Reservations are requested.

A series of prohibition seminars will take patrons deeper into the controversial era, starting with America Goes Dry on April 13. CHM curator John Russick helps the audience figure out what went wrong with the good intentions behind the more than 1400 brewery-terminating 18th amendment. Then, on April 27, Author Jonathan Eig's official book release party and lecture for Get Capone will tell the tale of Chicago gangster Al Capone with whisky tasting provided by prohibition-style Templeton Rye Whiskey. The Way We Drank on May 4 will round out the seminars with Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition author, Dan Okrent speaking of the culture of speakeasies and American urban social life.

If you want to get outside and explore the Prohibition era yourself, the CHM is loading up a trolley as well. Go back in time and take a tour of Chicago's gangland past and find out what made the city untouchable with curator John Russick's Gangland Chicago Bus Tour on April 24.

The most popular program to come out of CHM's Prohibition Month is, of course, The Booze, Bars and Bootlegging Pub Crawl April 22, 28 and 29. The April 28 crawl is the only date that hasn't sold out yet, so clinch your tickets fast. The informative tour takes patrons to speakeasies once owned and operated by Al Capone, Bugs Moran and John Dillinger, to name a few.