By Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD
Special to NKyTribune
New Year’s Day 1925 found the nation in the midst of generally prosperous economic times. Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States, and Herbert Hoover was the US Secretary of Commerce. While there was much to celebrate, festivities were somewhat overshadowed by Prohibition. Of course, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky were far from exemplars of tea-totaling temperance. Much to the contrary, they were at the crossroads of the illegal manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. For example, Howard J. Stollkamp of 824 Walnut Street in Dayton, Kentucky, was arrested by federal Prohibition authorities the day before New Year’s when his illegal still exploded. The resultant fire swept through three homes in that small Ohio River city (“Hoover Says U.S. is Again on Solid Basis,” Cincinnati Post, January 1, 1925, p. 8; “Still Explosion Starts Fire,” Kentucky Post, December 31, 1924, p. 1; “Still Owner Gives Up,” Kentucky Post, January 1, 1925, p, 1).
The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune did not mince words when describing how New Year’s 1925 was the “sixth New Year of the Sahara era” of Prohibition. It quickly noted, however, that area residents nevertheless imbibed quite a bit of liquor in what proved to be a “liquid symphony — the tinkle of ice in cocktail shakers, the gurgle of hip-flasks, and the popping of corks from ‘pedigreed’ scotch, three and five-star varieties, and the bottle sinister.” As the reporter gleefully noted, New Year’s Eve 1925 was “the wettest celebration since 1919.” Although Prohibition officials promised to be out in force, they apparently made no arrests for alcohol possession at the region’s many hotels, roadhouses, and speakeasies (“Popping Corks Mingle with Din on Eve Revelry,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, December 31, 1925, p. 1).
New Year’s Day 1925 was welcomed with traditional fanfare in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Railroad locomotives, steamboats, and factories blew their steam whistles, and churches rang their bells. And despite regulations forbidding it, some folks fired off guns. In Newport, Kentucky, a more than fifty-year tradition of tolling fire tower bells was held (“Fire Bells to Toll 1-9-2-5 in Welcoming New Year,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, December 31, 1924, p. 10).
Churches held watch-night services intended to provide wholesome alternatives. The Central YMCA of Cincinnati (at Canal—now Central Parkway—and Elm Streets) held a day-long educational exhibition of swimming, gymnastics, acrobatics, automobile repair, cartooning, a play, and even a mock court trial (“Noisy and Merry Welcome Extended to New Year,” Cincinnati Times-Star, January 1, 1925, p. 2).
The city’s various clubs and organization held open houses, as did many residents. It was a time to socialize with old acquaintances and to make new friends. And merchants everywhere were announcing New Year’s sales and wishing their customers health and prosperity in a bevy of newspaper advertisements.
It was also a time of optimism. Regional residents expressed hope that a US Secretary of the Interior committee’s recommendation be enacted for the establishment of a new national park in the Great Smoky Mountains east of Knoxville. As the Cincinnati Times-Star proclaimed, thousands of travelers would pass through Cincinnati, then a “fifteen-hour automobile ride over the Dixie highway” to the Great Smokies. The establishment of a national park there would actually await the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (“Smoky Mountain Site Favored as National Park,” Cincinnati Times-Star, January 1, 1925, p. 5).
December 31, 1924, p. 2.)
Covington residents hoped that the old Seventh Street Market House, by then an eyesore, would be demolished for a new combination market house/bus terminal. Meanwhile, along the Ohio River next to Coney Island Amusement Park, a new horse racing track — Coney Island Race Track (later River Downs, and now Belterra Park) — was nearing completion. It was the first horse track in Cincinnati since Oakley Park had closed in the early 1900s (“What’s Haste? Says Donnelly,” Kentucky Post, January 2, 1925, p. 1).
What was clearly evident, however, was that New Year’s Day 1925 found ordinary Americans flouting Prohibition. In fact, more Cincinnatians were arrested for intoxication in 1924—1,785—than in the year before Prohibition, 1918, when only 395 were arrested for the same crime. In addition, 1924 witnessed the arrest of 1,000 for bootlegging and 900 for gambling in Cincinnati (“City Emerges from Driest-Wet Year; Rainfall is Four Inches below Normal and Liquor Flow Unusually Heavy,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, January 1, 1925, p. 16).
In Northern Kentucky, the same general national trends held true. A national Anti-Saloon League survey found that all arrests (not merely for intoxication) rose from 813 in Newport in 1918 to 1,617 in 1924. Covington, however, witnessed a slight reduction of overall arrests, from 1,925 in 1918 to 1,708 in 1924. In its 1924 annual report, the Covington Police court did not specify the actual number of intoxication arrests; however, Judge Lewis L. Manson “urged parents to look more closely after their children to make sure they did not attend home-brew parties” (“Big Increase in Arrests since U.S. Dry Era Began,” Kentucky Post, April 5, 1925, p. 3; “Police Court Sets Record for Fines during Year,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, January 15, 1925, p. 10; “Fines in 1,617 Arrests in 1924 Total $7.287.62,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, January 7, 1925, p. 8).
Clearly, the stage was set. Northern Kentucky’s speakeasies and the easy flow of liquor during Prohibition established Newport as a wide-open city. And when Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, gambling stepped up to take its place.
Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is Editor of the “Our Rich History” weekly series and Professor of History and Religious Studies at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He can be contacted at tenkottep@nku.edu. Tenkotte also serves as Director of the ORVILLE Project (Ohio River Valley Innovation Library and Learning Enrichment). For more information see orvillelearning.org/