Hidden History of the Florida Keys by Laura Albritton

Author:Laura Albritton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2018-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

A postcard depicts Mabel’s Place, which served pies, turtle steaks and, during Prohibition, liquor. Jerry Wilkinson Collection.

Three people pose outside Mabel’s Place in North Key Largo; Mabel Harris may be in the center. Jerry Wilkinson Collection.

In the Upper and Middle Keys, there were only so many citizens to run afoul of Prohibition. In Key West, however, it was a truly different story. Even the island’s most famous resident, Ernest Hemingway, supposedly smuggled rum in from Cuba, while his favorite fishing boat captain, Joe “Josie Grunts” Russell, operated a speakeasy on Front Street, years before opening his bar Sloppy Joe’s.146 Prior to that, Joe had allegedly sold liquor at a stand located—of all places—just outside the naval base. With Cuba and its plentiful golden rum only ninety miles away, Key West became one of America’s most alcohol-drenched cities. In fact, Key West’s reputation as a party town ironically has its roots in those “dry” years: one might even argue that Prohibition created Key West’s hard-drinking identity.

Certainly, the reporters who accompanied President Calvin Coolidge to the island in 1928 were aware of the liquid delights that awaited. The newspapermen, including New York Herald Tribune journalist Beverly Smith Jr., had set out by train to document Coolidge’s trip to Cuba. This necessitated a stopover in Key West before the party took a ferry to Havana. Whereas the straight-laced president supported the ban on alcohol, members of his entourage could not wait to guzzle gin, whiskey or any other outlawed liquor. After the president turned in for the evening, the journalists went on the town. “The dignity of the tour began to crack,” Smith later wrote.147 “It was as though the mice had been informed that the cat was away.” A raucous night followed at Key West night spots. Perhaps they started off at the upscale restaurant Delmonico’s, which discreetly served liquor, or maybe they ventured somewhere less swish, such as a speakeasy simply described as “the place operated by Pedro Rodriguez on Emma Street.”148 Although Smith did “not remember that anybody fell down or had to be carried,” he admitted that “it cannot be denied that many in our party exceeded the bounds of strict sobriety.”

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