Pubdate: Mon, 06 Apr 2015
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Tan Vinh

PROHIBITION EXHIBIT

These days, you can't talk about the pro-marijuana movement without 
one dispensary owner or weed lover citing the failure of Prohibition 
as a lesson - as in, the legalization of pot can't be stopped just 
like booze couldn't a century ago.

So when the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) announced that the 
new traveling exhibit, "American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of 
Prohibition" would be coming here, you knew an allegory would be 
served up one way or another.

"What Prohibition was really about when you strip away the gangsters 
and the drunkenness is the issue [of] how do we balance our rights as 
private citizens against our perceived notion of what is public 
welfare," said Leonard Garfield, executive director of MOHAI. "The 
legalization of marijuana is very much like the discussion of alcohol 
in the 20th century."

The exhibit, organized by the National Constitution Center in 
Philadelphia, covers the time period from the temperance movement of 
the 1800s to the repeal of the 18th Amendment, which ended Prohibition.

MOHAI will launch a companion exhibit on June 6, called "21st Century 
Speakeasy," which will delve into the topic of marijuana 
legalization, among other subjects, to connect the dots with Prohibition.

As the nation is "moving toward marijuana legalization," there are 
take-away lessons that can be learned from Prohibition, Garfield said.

By 1830, Americans drank the equivalent of four shots a day, which 
eventually led to the dry period, 1920-1933.

The exhibit makes the case that Prohibition not only had little 
success but helped launch crime syndicates and made bootleggers such 
as Seattle's Roy Olmstead rich.

A former lieutenant with the Seattle Police, Olmstead brought down 
whiskey from the docks of Victoria, B.C., and Vancouver, Canada, 
through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The phone Olmstead used to run 
his empire, and which eventually doomed him, is on display at the exhibit.

Federal agents arrested Olmstead based on evidence gathered from 
wiretapping equipment placed on the street and in an office building 
basement near but not on Olmstead's property. His case reached the 
Supreme Court and became a national debate over whether wiretapping 
violated one's privacy, an issue that still resonates today.

As the exhibit makes clear, Washington's antiquated liquor law is a 
legacy of Prohibition. The state didn't get out of the booze business 
until voters approved an initiative to privatize liquor four years ago.

The centerpiece is the speakeasy room, where you enter through a dark 
door leading to ragtime music with displays of black and white photos 
showing how the culture shifted during Prohibition from men's only 
saloons to both sexes sharing tables while sipping gin drinks and 
women doing the Charleston in hemlines above the knees.

To avoid boring the millennials and field-tripping students at what 
is essentially a civics lesson on the 18th and the 21st amendments, 
"Prohibition" gets sexedup with interactive panels and the 
name-dropping of Eliot Ness.

There's also a "Rum Running" video game where you chase bootleggers 
around the Pacific Coast and a mug-shot photo op alongside a 
life-size cutout of Al Capone that can be emailed to you.

Local distilleries will host tastings at the museum in conjunction 
with the exhibit later this summer.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom