How Did Speakeasies Work? Inside the Hidden Bars
At half past eleven on a Saturday night in 1927, a well-dressed young couple stepped out of a taxi on a quiet side street in midtown Manhattan. They paused at an unmarked door between a dentist’s office and a shoe-repair shop. Above the door was a small bronze plaque that read “Antonio’s Tonsorial Parlor.” The man knocked twice, paused, then knocked three more times. A slot in the door slid open; an eye appeared; a voice asked a question; the man answered; the door swung open. Inside, a narrow staircase led down to a basement room, lit by low amber lamps, where a tuxedoed doorman welcomed them with a small bow. A string quartet was playing in one corner; a long bar ran down another; a bartender in a starched white coat was shaking cocktails. This was a speakeasy — one of an estimated 30,000 to 100,000 in New York City alone.
The wider story of Prohibition and speakeasies is told in the parent section, the larger law that produced them is described in what was Prohibition, and the long-term consequences of their rise are treated in Prohibition’s effects on American society.
The Numbers
The exact number of speakeasies in the United States during the 1920s is unknown. The New York Police Department estimated that there were between 30,000 and 100,000 in New York City at the peak. Chicago was estimated to have had 10,000 to 25,000. Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other major cities had their own thousands. The name “speakeasy” is of uncertain origin; one explanation is that a bartender in a 19th-century saloon would ask loud customers to “speak easy” — to keep their voices down. The names varied by region: “blind pig” or “blind tiger” in the Midwest, “gin joint” in some parts of the country, and “cider cellar” in New York.
The Physical Setup
A speakeasy could be set up in almost any space large enough to hold a bar. The most common locations were basements, back rooms of legitimate businesses, and upper floors of office buildings. Many were hidden behind unmarked doors, with no sign or with a deliberately misleading one. The most elaborate had concealed entrances: bookcases that swung open on hidden hinges, false walls that opened with the push of a button, and hidden panels in fireplaces.
The better speakeasies were decorated as elegantly as any pre-Prohibition saloon. The most famous example, the 21 Club in Manhattan (originally the “Red Head” speakeasy, opened in 1929), had a false front as a “Ye Olde Speakeasy” and a hidden bar in the basement, along with a system of chutes that allowed the staff to dump the entire stock of liquor into the cellar at the press of a button, in case of a raid. The Stork Club, opened in 1929 by Sherman Billingsley, was another famous Manhattan speakeasy. The 21 Club’s patrons included the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, and Prescott Bush (the father and grandfather of future presidents). The connection between the nightclubs and the jazz musicians who played in them is treated in Harlem nightclubs in the 1920s.
The Password and the Doorman
The most distinctive feature of a speakeasy was the password — a word, a phrase, or a hand signal that the doorman required before opening the door. The password changed frequently, often weekly, to keep out strangers and to identify the police. Common passwords included “Joe sent me,” “I’m with the band,” and “the password is ‘swordfish’.” Some speakeasies used a card key issued to trusted customers.
The doorman was the most important employee of a speakeasy. He had to recognize the regular customers, spot a plainclothes policeman, deal with drunks, handle a raid, and remember the password. The doormen of the most exclusive speakeasies were small-time gangsters themselves, and the best-known were minor celebrities of the nightlife world.
The Clientele
Speakeasies served a remarkably broad cross-section of American society. The most expensive served wealthy New Yorkers and out-of-town visitors. The middle-class ones served office workers, shopkeepers, and their wives. The working-class ones in the immigrant neighborhoods served factory workers. The Harlem speakeasies, the subject of Harlem nightclubs in the 1920s, were among the few integrated spaces in 1920s America.
Speakeasies also employed an unusual number of women, both as customers and as hostesses. The “hostess” would sit with male customers, encourage them to drink, and ensure that the bills were paid. The most famous speakeasy hostess was Texas Guinan (1884–1933), who ran a series of New York clubs and greeted her customers with a trademark “Hello, suckers!” The role of women in 1920s nightlife is part of the broader story of the flapper movement.
The Drinks
The base liquor was often bathtub gin — high-proof alcohol made by mixing industrial alcohol with water, juniper berries, and flavorings. The whiskey was often rotgut, made from wood alcohol mixed with water and caramel coloring. The federal government had ordered industrial alcohol producers to add poisons like methyl alcohol and kerosene to make it undrinkable, a policy that historians estimate killed about 10,000 people before the end of Prohibition.
The poor quality of the liquor required the bartender to mask the taste with elaborate mixes of fruit juices, sugar, herbs, and liqueurs. The result was the great age of the American cocktail, including the Sidecar (cognac, orange liqueur, lemon), the Bee’s Knees (gin, lemon, honey), the Mary Pickford (white rum, pineapple, grenadine, named for the silent-film star), the Tom Collins (gin, lemon, sugar, soda), the Jack Rose (applejack, lemon, grenadine), the French 75 (gin, champagne, lemon, sugar), the Bronx cocktail (gin, vermouth, orange juice), and the Gimlet (gin and lime). The martini (gin and dry vermouth) and the Manhattan (rye, sweet vermouth, bitters) became national institutions in this period.
The Bartenders
The speakeasy bartender — increasingly called a “mixologist” — became a cultural hero of the 1920s. The most famous American mixologist was Harry Craddock (1875–1963), the English-born head bartender of the Savoy Hotel in London, whose Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) became the standard reference for the new drinks. Eddie Woelke of New York and Fernand Petiot of Paris were other important bartenders. The role of the bartender as a kind of theatrical performer was new to the 1920s and helped create the modern profession.
The Music and the Police
Most speakeasies had some form of live entertainment, ranging from a single piano player in the corner to a full jazz band. The larger ones had full floor shows with chorus girls and specialty acts. The jazz bands that worked the speakeasy circuit built their reputations on the audiences they played to in the illegal clubs. The connection between the music of the 1920s and the illegal bars is treated in jazz age music.
Speakeasies existed because of a complex relationship with law enforcement. The federal Prohibition Bureau was chronically underfunded and corrupt. The New York Police Department estimated in 1930 that more than half of its officers took bribes from speakeasy operators. The raids that did occur were often perfunctory; the most elaborate speakeasies had systems to dump the liquor and reopen the next night as if nothing had happened. The corruption of the police and the courts was one of the most damaging consequences of Prohibition, treated in Prohibition’s effects on American society. The broader political climate of the 1920s, including the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, is treated in the KKK in the 1920s.