Nucky`s Empire: The Prohibition Years

Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
Prohibition in a Wide Open Town
Prohibition went into effect nationwide at midnight January 16, 1920. This law made it illegal to
make or sell liquor (including beer and wine), but Americans drank anyway, going to secret
clubs or “speakeasies” or making "bathtub gin" at home. Alcohol could be obtained legally only
with a doctor’s prescription. Organized crime, or mobs, cropped up to supply the alcohol to the
many customers demanding it all across the country.
In Atlantic City, Prohibition was essentially unenforced by the local authorities. Atlantic City was
a well-known haven for those seeking alcohol. The tourist-based economy of the resort
encouraged business owners to provide whatever was needed to make the visitors happy. The
city's beachfront location and docks allowed rum-runners to bring their goods onto shore. Add in
a powerful city boss who allegedly controlled everything from the smuggling operation to the law
enforcement to the restaurants where alcohol was served, and Atlantic City was essentially a
wide open town, flagrantly violating the federal law.
Experience life in Atlantic City during Prohibition by exploring the exhibits below. Check back
often, as more information will be added!
{tab=The People}
Meet some of the people in Atlantic City in the 1920s.
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
Boss
Nucky
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Sarah
Spencer
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Miss
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{tab=The
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City.
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
Ritz
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
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In Atlantic City, during Prohibition, the power of Atlantic City's boss, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson
reached its zenith. Prohibition was effectively unenforced in Atlantic City, and, as a result, the
resort's popularity grew further. The city then called itself "The World's Play Ground". Most of
Johnson's income came from the percentage he took on every gallon of illegal liquor sold, and
on his gambling and prostitution operations in Atlantic City. Johnson allegedly said:
"We have whisky, wine, women, song and slot machines. I won't deny it and I won't apologize
for it. If the majority of the people didn't want them they wouldn't be profitable and they wouldn't
exist. The fact that they do exist proves to me that the people want them."
Flappers and the Flaming Youth
It was also during the Roaring 20s that the flapper came to be. Young women rebelled against
the previous generation, cutting their hair short and shortening their hem lines and wearing
makeup, in the spirit of their new found freedom and encouraged by their new economic wealth.
These decadent party goers, both the flappers, and their male counterparts, the Flaming Youth,
demanded access to the alcohol that was accessible to the very well connected, and thus the
demand for alcohol, which had never really disappeared, instead increased.
Passion for Jazz
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
The unique new musical form called jazz was so important to the 1920s that the period is
sometimes called the "Jazz Age." Jazz served as the background music for this period, playing
in nightclubs, on Broadway, as well as at private parties, and it drew New Yorkers to Harlem,
the heart of African American culture during the 1920s.
Like jazz music, motion pictures were also more widely accepted during the 1920s as they moved out o
Movie advertisement for(H009.BoardwalkIllustrated1928_JazzSinger.jpg
"The Jazz Singer," the first "talkie".
Atlantic City Heritage Collec
To learn more about the 1920s in general and in Atlantic City, check out some of these
resources available at the Atlantic City Free Public Library.
Resource Guide
Electronic Resources (Access through the Atlantic City Free Public Library Premium
eResources
a
CFPL Library Card
)
with
A
Sanborn Digital Maps for New Jersey (1867-1970) - see street maps and building locations for
New Jersey communities for various years.·
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
Heritage Quest - research people who lived during the 1920s through census records, family
records, and local histories.·
E-Books - titles related to the 1920s from the Gale History and Culture Reference Books are:
American Decades. Vol. 3: 1920-1929. Detroit: Gale, 2001.
American Decades Primary Sources. Vol. 3: 1920-1929. Detroit: Gale, 2004.
Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America. Vol. 2:
1920s-1930s. Detroit: UXL, 2002.
History in Dispute. Vol. 3: American Social and Political Movements, 1900-1945: Pursuit of
Progress. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
Roaring Twenties Reference Library. Detroit: UXL, 2006.
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Detroit: Gale, 2000.
Selected Print Resources in the Library Collection (Search the Library Catalog for more
information about these resources or to request a hold.)
Frederick Lewis Allen. Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday: a popular history of the '20s and
'30s
. New York : Bonanza Books, 1986.
Ralph K. Andrist, ed. The American Heritage History of the 1920s & 1930s. New York:
American Heritage, 1987.
Marvin Barrett. The Years Between: a dramatic view of the twenties and thirties. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1962. (Reference book only)
Wendy Hart Beckman. Artists and Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Berkeley Heights, NJ:
Enslow Publishers, 2001.
Edward Behr. Prohibition: Thirteen years that changed America. New York: Arcade, 1997.
Harold Bloom, ed. Black American poets and dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1994.
Harold Bloom, ed. Major Black American writers through the Harlem Renaissance. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1995.
Jim Corrigan. The 1920s Decade in Photos: the Roaring Twenties. Berkeley Heights, NJ:
Enslow Publishers, 2010.
Sylvia Engdahl, ed. Amendments XVIII and XXI: Prohibition and repeal. Farmington Hills, MI:
Greenhaven Press, 2009.
Stephen Feinstein. The 1920s: from Prohibition to Charles Lindbergh. Berkeley Heights, NJ:
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
Enslow, 2001.
Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., ed. Black music in the Harlem Renaissance: a collection of essays.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1993.
Ann Graham Gaines. The Harlem Renaissance in American History. Berkeley Heights, NJ:
Enslow Publishers, 2002.
Ernie Gross. The American Years: a Chronology of United States History. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1999. (Reference book only)
Erica Hanson. The 1920s. San Diego, Calif. : Lucent Books, 1999.
Jacqueline Herald. Fashions of a decade: the 1920s. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Nathan Irvin Huggins. Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
David C. King. Al Capone and the Roaring Twenties. Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch Press, 1999.
John Kobler. Capone: the life and world of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.
Andrew B. Leiter. In the Shadow of the Black Beast: African American masculinity in the Harlem
and Southern renaissances.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
2010.
Michael Lienesch. In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes trial, and the making of the
antievolution movement
. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2007.
Leigh Montville. The Big Bam: the life and times of Babe Ruth. New York: Doubleday, 2006.
Lucy Moore. Anything Goes: a Biography of the roaring twenties. New York : Overlook Press,
2010.
Daniel Okrent. Last Call: the rise and fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2010.
David Pietrusza. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1998.
Lucia Raatma. The Harlem Renaissance: a celebration of creativity. Chanhassen, MN: Child's
World, 2003.
Arnold Shaw. The Jazz Age: Popular music in the 1920's. New York: Oxford University Press,
1987.
Jodie A. Shull. Langston Hughes: "Life makes poems". Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow
Publishers, 2006.
Cary D. Wintz, compiler. Harlem Speaks: a living history of the Harlem Renaissance.
Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2006.
Iconic Fiction Books from or about the 1920s (Search the Library Catalog for more
information about these resources or to request a hold.)
T.S. Eliot .
William Faulkner.
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Ernest Hemingway.
Zora Neale Hurston.
Eugene O'Neill.
The Waste Land.
The Sound and the Fury.
The Great Gatsby.
The Sun Also Rises.
Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Strange Interlude.
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
Movies
About
the
1920s
(Search
Library
Catalog for more information about these
titles.)
Al
Capone
Scarface
Amelia
Cartoon
Rarities
of and
the 1920s
Emergence
of
Modern
America:
Roaring
Twenties
Hollywood
Dancing:
Thethe
1920s
Loss
ofSinging
aTwenties
Teardrop
Diamond
Roaring
The
Untouchables
Resources in the Library's Atlantic City Heritage Collections Related to Atlantic City in
the 1920s
Published Resources
Atlantic City City Directories.
Atlantic City Amusements
Atlantic City newspapers - Collections on Microfilm .
Boardwalk Illustrated
Richlyn Goddard. Three Months to Hurry and Nine Months to Worry: Resort life for African
Americans in Atlantic City, NJ (1850-1940).
Howard University, 2001.
Nelson Johnson. Boardwalk Empire: The birth, high times and corruption of Atlantic City. Medfo
rd NJ: Plexus Publishing, 2002.
Nelson Johnson. The Northside: African Ameircans and the Creation of Atlatnic City. Medford
NJ: Plexus Publishing, 2010.
Vicki Gold Levi. Atlantic City: 125 Years of Ocean Madness. New York: C.N. Potter, distributed
by Crown Publishers, 1979.
Jonathan Van Meter. The Last Good Time: Skinny D'Amato , The Glorious 500 Club & the Rise
and Fall of Atlantic City.
New York: Crown, 2003.
Jim Waltzer and Tom Wilk. Tales of South Jersey: Profiles and Personalities. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 2001.
Who's Who in New Jersey, Atlantic County Edition. National Biographic News Service: New
York, 1925.
Chick Yeager. The Republican Boss Era of Atlantic City, 1900-1971. [S.l.: n.p.], 1981.
Archival Resources
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Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years
ACFPL Collection of Atlantic City Photographs (H009)
ACFPL Collection of Atlantic City Postcards (H049)
ACFPL Map Collection (H020)
Brisco Family Papers, 1923-1975 (H052)
Walls Family Photographs (H063)
Local History Subject File - Convention Hall (original)
Local History Subject File - Miss America-1920s
Local History Subject File - Nightclubs
Local History Subject File - Organized Crime
Local History Subject File - Prohibition
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