At 32½ minutes past three (MT) in the afternoon of December 5th, 1933, Utah became the required 36th State to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing prohibition. A telegram went off to Washington confirming the vote. Within minutes, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the end of prohibition for the nation, after a “dry spell” of nearly 14 years.
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At the start, Oregon became one of 15 states that made the selling of liquor a state monopoly. You bought your bottle of booze at a state liquor store. The serving of beer, however, became legal in licensed taverns everywhere in the state. Tavern owners were poised for the magic hour, ready to swing open their doors.
On the night of the 5th of December, 1933, it was party time in Portland. The lid was off.
My mother and Agnes went out on the town to celebrate,* along with thousands of others. That’s when big Otto Larsen and Eddie “Double Thumb” Daniels stepped into our lives.