FDR and the End of Prohibition

This blogpost originally appeared on December 5, 2008

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. As part of the National Portrait Gallery’s regular “Face-to-Face” portrait talks, NPG researcher Warren Perry discussed Roosevelt and his role in turning back Prohibition. This 1945 portrait of FDR, by artist Douglas Granville Chandor, can be viewed in the America’s Presidents exhibition, on the museum’s first floor. 

From Jean Edward Smith’s FDR:

FDR’s attitude toward Prohibition was . . . equivocal.  Never averse to bending an elbow himself, he nevertheless accumulated a perfect voting record in the Senate, according to the Anti-Saloon League.  In January 1913, he actually introduced a local option bill for the League and became the subject of a laudatory editorial (“An Advocate of Christian Patriotism”) in its national magazine. In this instance, Franklin appears to have been too clever by half. Prohibition was anathema in New York City, and his opponents never tired of tying him to it.  Down through 1932 the story persisted that whatever Roosevelt might say, there was a voting record to prove he was “dry” at heart.

By the time of the 1932 election, Prohibition had taken its toll on America. There was huge reluctance on the part of presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt to deny that it had taken money away from federal coffers and placed it into the hands of unsavory characters like Al Capone. As Maureen Ogle records in her barley epic, Ambitious Brew, Roosevelt announced during his campaign that it was “time to correct the ‘stupendous blunder’ that was Prohibition.”

Prohibition was repealed seventy-five years ago today. People went back to work in various brewing and distilling industries, and after work, many of them went home and had a drink.

Listen to Warren Perry’s Face-to-Face talk on Roosevelt and the repeal of prohibition (18:18)

The next Face-to-Face portrait talk is this Thursday, December 11, when NPG historian David Ward speaks about the portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Hesler. The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.

Sources and further reading:

Ogle, Maureen.  Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer.
    New York: Harcourt, 2006.

Smith, Jean Edward.  FDR.  New York: Random House, 2008.