Los Angeles sentiment during prohibition

Mirrored that of the nation from January 16, 1920 to December 4, 1933.

Happy New Year! (mid-1920s Version)

Federal and state law enforcement want to remind you that the Volstead Act still stands regardless of the fact that it is New Years! That society gal you've been dancing with? She's an undercover agent. The coronet player in the orchestra- he's undercover too. You WILL be caught!

And for those of you planning 'church meetings' on New Years Eve-- you'll find yourself short of sacramental wine, we just seized 20,000 gallons which we currently have under lock and key.

Just to keep things safe all motor vehicles will be barred on Broadway (between Third and Ninth) and on Sixth Street (between Main and Hill). You may now safely wander all over the streets so long as you stay off the streetcar tracks. They'll be running as usual.

Happy New Year! (mid-1910s Version)

Pre-Prohibition merriment!! Two hundred thousand revelers descend upon downtown Los Angeles- from First to Tenth streets, from Hill to Main streets. The biggest crowds could be found on Broadway (lined with theaters/theatres) and Spring ("Wall Street of the West"). According to The Times "It was a drunken crowd, a crowd not drunk with liquid measures, but intoxicated to frenzy by exhilaration that was pregnant with resolve to shoot the city onward in the modern rush for supremacy, commercial, industrial and financial." Heady times indeed.

You can still check out the sites for yourself!