Raising the Bar: Consumption, Gender, and the Birth of a New Public Drinking Culture Adam Blahut
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-12-2014 Raising the Bar: Consumption, Gender, and the Birth of a New Public Drinking Culture Adam Blahut Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Recommended Citation Blahut, Adam. "Raising the Bar: Consumption, Gender, and the Birth of a New Public Drinking Culture." (2014). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/9 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Adam Blahut Candidate History Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz, Chairperson Dr. Larry Ball Dr. Paul Andrew Hutton Dr. Sharon Wood i RAISING THE BAR: CONSUMPTION, GENDER, AND THE BIRTH OF A NEW PUBLIC DRINKING CULTURE by ADAM BLAHUT B.A., HISTORY, MERCYHURST UNIVERSITY, 2002 M.A., SOCIAL SCIENCE, EDINBORO UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 2005 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY HISTORY The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2014 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Durwood Ball, Paul Andrew Hutton, and Sharon Wood for their advice and help while working with me on this dissertation. I would especially like to thank Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz, my adviser and dissertation committee chair, who guided me through this project and made me a better historian in the process. iii RAISING THE BAR: CONSUMPTION, GENDER, AND THE BIRTH OF A NEW PULBIC DRINKING CULTURE by Adam Blahut B.A., History, Mercyhurst University, 2002 M.A., Social Science, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, 2005 Ph.D., History, University of New Mexico, May 2014 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the history of public drinking extending a rich historiography of U.S. drinking establishments into the twentieth century by examining the creation of the heterosocial bar. It has only been socially acceptable for respectable men and women to drink alcohol together in public since approximately the 1930s. The transition from the saloon to the bar, from a single, undivided space that emphasized large groups, physical mobility, and homosociability to a compartmentalized space emphasizing small groups, privacy, and heterosociability, shows how public drinking and the places where it occurred were microcosms of society that reflected and constituted that society over the course of the twentieth century. The history of the bar helps us understand the historiographies of public drinking, male and female gender identity, and consumer culture. The bar emerged from the saloon as a result of changes in consumption and gender identity during the twentieth century. Public drinking was one of the customs by which men and women constructed and reinforced their identities, and a reciprocal relationship existed between how they viewed themselves and how they created and iv recreated the establishments where they drank. Drinkers influenced the formation of the new public drinking culture of the bar by using the space of public drinking establishments to perform their gender identities. Men tried to use the saloon and then the bar to struggle against changes that threatened their status and self-conception as males. Meanwhile, middle-class women increasingly emerged into public, changing the norms of female gender identity by claiming access to alcohol in public settings in a way that both reflected and reinforced their new status. Prohibition and the conflicts surrounding the heterosocialization of public drinking influenced the new model for drinking establishments and fostered a less gendered, more private drinking culture. The saloon-to-bar transformation also depoliticized these businesses, which contributed to the deradicalization of the working class. The saloon-to-bar transition represented not only the creation of a new public drinking culture but also the emergence of new standards for gender and consumption. v CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................iv LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1 PART I: PUBLIC DRINKING, C. 1900 TO JANUARY 1920 ...............................22 Chapter 1. THE ILLUSIONS OF THE SALOON ...................................................26 An Illusion of Mainstream Leisure .....................................................27 An Illusion of Adaptability .................................................................50 2. THE HOMOSOCIAL ORIGINS OF HETEROSOCIAL DRINKING ............................................................................................67 A Last Round for the Men ..................................................................71 Make Room for the Women ...............................................................89 PART II: PROHIBITION, JULY 1919 TO DECEMBER 1933 ..............................109 3. PROHIBITION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC DRINKING ............................................................................................112 Mixing New Ideas of Drinking ...........................................................114 The Rise of Heterosocial Drinking .....................................................126 A New Place to Drink .........................................................................139 PART III: PUBLIC DRINKING, C. 1930 TO C. 1960............................................152 4. THE ASCENDENCE OF THE BAR AND MODERN PUBLIC DRINKING ............................................................................................155 From the Saloon to the Bar .................................................................157 Redefining the Public Drinking Culture .............................................178 vi 5. THE GENDERED STRUGGLE OVER HETEROSOCIAL PUBLIC DRINKING ............................................................................................195 Women’s Public Drinking ..................................................................198 Kings in Their Own Minds .................................................................210 Homosocial Drinking’s Last Stand .....................................................230 CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................247 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................259 vii ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. McSorley's Ale House [Interior Facing Door], November 1937 ....................... 3 2. McSorley's Ale House [Interior Facing Bar], November 1937 ......................... 3 3. Manhattan: 3rd Avenue–44th Street, c. 1920 ................................................... 6 4. Manhattan: 44th Street (East)-3rd Avenue, 1927 ............................................. 6 5. The Grecian Bend Saloon, South Pass City, Wyoming, Constructed 1868 ...... 37 6. The Diana Saloon, Sacramento, California, Date of Construction Unknown ... 38 7. Saloon 272, Bleecker Street, New York City, 1916 .......................................... 38 8. Saloon Located at Leadville, Colorado, c. 1880s .............................................. 39 9. A New York Drinking Bar, 1882 ........................................................................ 80 10. Bar-Room of "The Corner," 1892 ...................................................................... 80 11. The Cosmopolitan, c. 1905–1915 ...................................................................... 81 12. Budweiser's Custer's Last Fight, 1896............................................................... 82 13. Maxfield Parrish's Old King Cole, 1895 ............................................................ 84 14. Theatrical Poster entitled On the Bowery .......................................................... 87 15. “Don’t You Know You Can’t Park in 48th Street?” ........................................... 135 16. Glenn O. Coleman’s Speakeasy ......................................................................... 138 17. The Diana Saloon ............................................................................................... 141 18. The Union Oyster House ................................................................................... 141 viii 19. Interior View of Cerf Meyer’s Saloon, 1911 ..................................................... 145 20. Leadville, CO. Saloon, c. 1880–1910 ................................................................ 146 21. The Drunkards Pilgrimage, May 1846............................................................... 161 22. Macy's Advertisement, New York Times, 2 January 1934 ................................. 202 23. Macy's Advertisement, New York Times, 3 January 1934 ................................. 202 24. Billie's bar, 56th Street and First Avenue, New York City, 1936 ...................... 224 25. O'Reilly's bar, 3rd Avenue, New York