Quotes About Speakeasies

Dancing in speakeasies was a job, and none of us knew for sure who were gangsters. No one told us, so how could we know? My mother used to come and take me home. We thought nothing of walking home together at two in the morning.

Was this America--this my home Prohibition and Teapot Dome-- Speakeasies, night clubs, illicit stills, Dark faces peering behind dark grills, Hold-ups, kidnappings, hootch or booze-- Everyone gambling--you just can't lose, Was this my country?

I knew San Francisco when it was a wild place during Prohibition. There were more speakeasies than churches, and you could always get a drink.

Something bright and alien flashed across the sky... and for a moment people set down their glasses in country clubs and speakeasies and thought of their old best dreams. Maybe there was a way out by flying, maybe our restless blood could find frontiers in the illimitable air. But by that time we were all pretty well committed; and the Jazz Age continued; we would all have one more.

In New York, with Prohibition in full swing, he thought he had died and gone o hell for his sins. Then he discovered speakeasies and he rejoiced.

He had heard it sure enough, wailing underground in clubs and speakeasies, all through Prohibition, hot, polyphonic, toe-tapping, full of syncopated rhythms and bent, naughty notes—perfect for small and secret spaces.