At 5:32 P.M. EST on 5 December 1933, the "noble experiment" called Prohibition came to an end when the state of Utah became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment, which had been passing feverishly through state legislatures across the country since 10 April, repealed the Eighteenth Amendment (1919), which had barred sales and consumption of alcohol nationwide for nearly fourteen years. As expected, there was dancing in the streets, but only a little dancing. The police in Los Angeles and New York had put their entire forces on call to combat the anticipated celebrations, but Prohibition passed away more quietly than expected. Both The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported subdued celebration, though patrons of the St. Moritz Hotel in New York did dance their way single file to the lake in Central Park for a symbolic drowning.....
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