The Dry Times: Prohibition Tales

While the local newspaper headlines touted the best ever Rose Parade in Pasadena, buried several pages deeper the January 2, 1901 editon of the Los Angeles Herald, for example, carried sad news for the saloon drinker in San Juan Capistrano and Fullerton.  In fact, all unincorporated cities in Orange county went dry that year, which meant that convivial social drinkers had to travel to Anaheim, Santa Ana, or The City of Orange.  In all, some five counties and 175 municipalities in California banned saloons in 1901.

Long before the Federal government's official law against alcohol manufacture around 1918, counties like Orange sent a strong political message that would continue for almost two decades.  But there were a few hiccoughs along the way.

In 1903, Santa Ana closed all its saloons.  By 1911, when Orange county women first got to exercise their new voting status, the chief ballot measure is on local option. In Tustin, 199 out of 400 votes are cast by women, and the town goes dry. In San Juan Capistrano, one woman is registered to vote, and the town goes back to being "wet".  1911 saw that almost 42% of California had "gone dry."  But it was mostly in the rural areas; no city with a population over 50,000 had voted for prohibition.

That all changed in 1922 when California adopted the Federal law and Volstead Act on a close vote of approximately 52% pro and 48% anti.  And a new era of bootleg booze entered the county.