Alcohol and Drugs History Society

American Jews, the liquor business, and "Judah Beam"

A lengthy and color illustrated blog entry by Stephen J. Gertz, available here, begins with a bit of ephemera (the 1954 Joseph Jacobs Handbook of Jewish Words and Expressions. For Use by anybody calling on the Jewish trade ... for making friends with Jewish merchants) and proceeds to tell a little known story of American Jews in the liquor business, a story that the author knows well as his family was prominent in it. It begins with the National Brokerage Company of Chicago, a trader in (liquor) warehouse receipts and its take over during National Prohibition of Jim Beam which "became, for all intents and purposes, Judah Beam." Parallel to the Bronfman family buying up Canadian distilleries, Lewis S. Rosenstiel purchased Schenley in Pennsylvania and then other distilleries.  "By the mid-1930s, Jews controlled the distilled spirits industry in the U.S., completely responsible for its finance, sales and marketing."  Until the post-WWII boom, liquor stores typically were owned by small Jewish merchants.  Although Gertz directs his blog principally at collectors, his blog entry will interest historians of whiskey in the decades following the enactment of the Volstead Act.

Gertz, an antiquarian book dealer, specializes in erotic literature, the  literature of drugs, and sometimes the two entwined.

Tim Hortons invades New York City

A former Dunkin' Donuts franchise owner has quarreled with the Dunkin' Donuts organization which no longer wants his business.  As a result, he is turning his 13 New York City properties into Tim Hortons outlets.  The Canadian coffee, donut, and lunch shops are unfamiliar in New York City, and competition is fierce there, so observers are doubtful about success.   For more, see here.

Drug Use and Addiction in War

Tom Langdale wrote this short article, dated July 9, 2009, for High 5 Men's Magazine.

Black-market cigarettes

Tim Elfrink wrote this dramatic summary of the recent history of cigarette smuggling as a source of terrorist income for the Miami New Times.

Temperance and drink in Nebraska

Two articles by Patricia C. Gaster in Nebraska History: "A Fallen Victim to 'the Liquor Curse': The Life and Death [1912] of Samuel D. Cox" 89/2 (2008): 84-93; "Good Grammar and Sensational Style" 88/1-2 (2007): 28-41 [re Wm E. "Pussyfoot"Johnson, his temperance Daily Bumble Bee (published against the Omaha Bee), and the fight for prohibition in 1890.

Georgia's local option law of 1885 (article)

Michael A. Wagner, "'As Gold is Tried in the Fire, so Hearts Must be Tried by Pain': The Temperance Movement in Georgia and the Local Option Law of 1885," Georgia Historical Quarterly 93/1 (2009): 30-54.

Black women, prohibition, and the election of 1928 (article)

 Lisa G. Materson, "African American Women, Prohibition, and the 1928 Presidential Election," Journal of Women's History 21/1 (2009): 63-86.

Reviving the rock-and-rye "medicinal" cocktail

According to the Wall Street Journal, a few enthusiasts for old drinks are experimenting with new recipes for the rock-and-rye cocktail once regarded as a medicinal cure-all.  The old recipe combined rye whiskey with hard candy and a few herbs and bits of fruit.  For more, see here.

Old Boston taverns and tavern clubs (book)

Samuel Adams Drake, Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs (BiblioBazaar, 2009).

Obama's Supreme Court Nominee ruled against Out-of-State Wine Shippers and got overturned

Click here for the article on Tom Wark's Fermentation, The Daily Wine Blog.