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Philip Spiess
As a sequel to some earlier posts on Temperance and Prohibition, I submit:
DID WOMEN DRINK (AND IF SO, WHAT) BEFORE PROHIBITION?
Well, you may guess that some women (perhaps a few) drank in private (think of the two old biddies in Arsenic and Old Lace and their elderberry wine, a play which we performed at WHHS in our Junior Class year of 1963), but did they ever drink in public? And why do I even introduce this topic? It’s to correct a certain picture, because in my Posts #6182 and #6186 [12-7-22 and 12-8-22] I elaborated on religion-inspired women praying before saloons, founding the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and otherwise begging their husbands and fathers to leave the tavern and get the hell home (“Oh, Father, dear Father, Come Home with Me Now”). It suggested that the “fairer sex” indulged solely in the emotion that “Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine!” Well, I propose to correct the historical record (for what it’s worth).
Although women (well, “ladies” – I’m leaving out of this discussion what was known at the time as the “gay crowd,” which is to say “female prostitutes”) during the 19th century were expected to maintain sobriety – between their supposed religious piety and their child nursing requirements – nevertheless, there were women who, shall we say, “tippled.” Among the early favorite “tipples” were these: (1) Fruit Shrubs were popular female drinks from Colonial times through the Civil War; they combined the fruit's juices with a strong spirit, usually Rum or Brandy. (Later, when temperance movements began to stalk the land, they were made -- and are today -- with vinegar.) Cherry Bounce was also popular in this period; made at home, it also contained Rum, while Cordial Waters of various kinds utilized Brandy (including Peach Brandy) as their strengthening spirit. (2) The aforesaid Elderberry Wine was easy to make at home and mild enough to serve to the vicar when he visited. (And many other homemade wines were conconcted as well -- including Dandelion Wine -- if the recipe books of the period are to be trusted.) (3) Laudanum was a tincture of opium dissolved in alcohol, usually wine (it includes the opium alkaloids of morphine and codeine). It was used in the 19th century much as we use aspirin today (cf. the writings of the British essayist, Thomas De Quincey), treating pain and as a cough suppressant. It was sold without a prescription and was included in many patent medicines of the period. (4) Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound (1876), prescribed (in advertisements) for “women’s weaknesses, hysteria, and restoring women’s [sexual] pep.” In addition to its several five herbs, it contained drinking alcohol to relieve muscular stress, reduce pain, and induce a more “tranquil mood.” (5) Vin Mariani, also a patent medicine (1863), consisted of Bordeaux Wine and Coca leaves; the ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves (a precursor of the original Coca-Cola). It was marketed as a “cure” for a number of ailments, claiming to increase energy, appetite, and mood, as well as being a performance enhancer for creative activities and athletics; many famous people of the period drank it (including several Popes).
But let us move on to some later history, say, toward the end of the 19th century. In 1892, for example, William “Billy the Bartender” Dugay, a star bartender at the Hoffman House hotel in New York (then the premier bar of its period), noted that “The most popular morning [!] beverage with the ladies is the Manhattan cocktail.” And in 1901 the Kalamazoo Gazette reported that: “In dozens of restaurants of the better class may be found women, ladies, if you will, drinking ‘high balls,’ ‘Manhattan cocktails,’ and ‘brandy and soda.’ . . . I recently saw two young and pretty women, evidently of entire respectability, . . . one ordered a ‘high ball’ and the other a ‘Manhattan cocktail.’ After having disposed of these they each ordered another of the same kind.” And the New York Times of June 23, 1912, reported the drink list of a well-known London women’s club: “Short Drinks: Absinthe cocktail; Brandy cocktail; Bronx cocktail; Gin cocktail; Highland cocktail; Lone Tree cocktail; Martini cocktail; Manhattan cocktail; Pousse café; Sloe gin cocktail; Vermouth cocktail; Whiskey cocktail; Long Drinks: Brandy fizz; Brandy sour; Club sour; Café cocktail; Egg nogg; Gin fizz; John Collins; Milk punch; Royal fizz; Silver fizz; Tom Collins; Whiskey fizz; Whiskey sour; Stone Wall; Slings (various). Any Drink NOT ON LIST, please ask for.” [If you're interested in any of these, I can supply the recipes for most of them.]
We know (or if you don’t know, see the 1930s The Thin Man series of films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy) how both women and men reacted to Prohibition in America through speakeasies (and otherwise). Repeal in 1933 brought in new drinking habits and new cocktails, and both men and women shared in the result. And I’ll just leave it at that.
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