Bootlegging in Heels: Female Smugglers of the ProhibitionEra They Never Fit the Description Federal agents were looking for men. Men with hats pulledlow over their eyes, men driving trucks loaded…
Why Enforcement Looked the Other Way: Gender, Prohibition, and the Limits of the Law During Prohibition, federal agents and local police faced an enormous challenge: enforcing a nationwide ban on…
Corsets, Carriages, and Concealment: The Everyday Objects of Prohibition SmugglingDuring Prohibition, the difference between an ordinary errand and an illegal liquor delivery could be as small as what a woman…
What Arrest Records Reveal: The Women BehindProhibition’s Liquor Trade An arrest record might capture a moment of failure, but acollection of arrest records can tell a much larger story. During…
The Courier’s Disguise: How Female Bootleggers Hid in Plain SightDuring Prohibition, the most effective disguise might not have been a false mustache, a stolen uniform, or a forged set of…
The Stork Club: The Prohibition Speakeasy Where Gangsters, Movie Stars and Gossip Collided There were speakeasies where you went to hide. And then there was the Stork Club. The Stork…
Women in the Mafia Nightlife: Power Behind the Bar The Faces You Weren’t Supposed to Watch The men were loud. They leaned back in their chairs, talked with their hands,…
Why History Forgot Them History has a habit of remembering the man at the center of the room. The gangster sitting at the table gets a biography. The nightclub owner…
Fixers Without Titles Not every woman involved in Mafia nightlife had a title that appeared on a business card. Some simply became the person everyone called when something went wrong.…
Hostesses as Intelligence Assets The hostess occupied one of the most underestimated positions in nightlife. She was expected to be attractive, charming, attentive, and socially graceful. Her job was supposedly…
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