We interrupt your regular programming for an important historical note: Today is the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, the disastrous social experiment that did very little to curb the behavior it was designed to end, but did manage to make some very bad people very rich and powerful while bringing appalling levels of violence to the streets of American cities. (See also Drugs, War on.) As I’ve noted before, I find it endlessly amusing that my home state of Utah, home of the tee-totaling Mormons, was the one that cast the deciding vote in favor of repeal. (In a nice bit of historical symmetry, Utah was also the deciding vote in ratifying the Constitutional amendment that created Prohibition in the first place, so perhaps it was only fitting that we undid it as well.)

These days, alcohol is the number-one perennial flash point in our local culture wars. It’s an issue soaked in the tensions between the LDS majority and the growing (and frequently resentful) non-Mormon minority. It seems like there’s a bill introduced in every legislative session that would tweak Utah’s ridiculously arcane liquor laws, resulting in much predictable hand-wringing and fulminating from both sides of the issue. Contrary to what many outsiders believe, you can get a drink around here. You just have to pay more in sin-taxes and jump through more hoops than you do in our neighboring states.

One of those hoops makes the photo I’ve posted above particularly striking. That shot (which I appropriated from here) was taken in 1914, three years prior to the start of Prohibition. (In case you’re curious, I understand this location is now home to Lamb’s Grill, one of Salt Lake’s most venerable and respected eateries.) It’s a sight you would never encounter today: liquor bottles proudly displayed to the public in a big shop window, only a couple of blocks from Temple Square, right out there on a bustling thoroughfare for the whole world — Mormon and gentile alike — to admire. It’s really an astounding image, completely unexpected and alien to someone who grew up in post-Prohibition Utah, where the booze is kept under cover and those who want to purchase a bottle are made to feel only slightly less shameful than the trench-coated guys in the back room of Bob’s Magazine Shop.

You see, one of the consequences of Prohibition was that the state government here assumed total control of liquor sales. You can buy 3.2 beer with your groceries or at your local Kwik-E-Mart, but for wine or spirits, you have to go to the state-run liquor store. (It’s one of the many ironies of life in Utah that the conservatives in charge of things are always ranting about the evils of socialism, but they do everything in their power to maintain the government’s monopoly over this particular industry.)

These stores are usually somewhere off the beaten path, well away from churches, schools, parks, bowling alleys, ice-cream parlors, and every other place where decent people might be offended — or worse, tempted — by the foul evils available within. Further, Utah State Liquor Stores are apparently designed to reduce the possibility of offense and/or temptation even more, basically by ensuring that no one passing by has the slightest idea of what’s actually inside the store. I think there are probably military bunkers out on the test range that have more (and bigger) windows than the average Utah liquor store. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control uses the same architects as the Army.

So accustomed was I to the idea of driving down some frontage road somewhere to a blank-faced warehouse in order to purchase my bi-annual ration that the new liquor store that recently opened near my house sent my head reeling. It’s conveniently located next to Home Depot and Chili’s, for one thing, and as you can see in the linked photo, there are lots of windows. Not that you can see anything through them, of course, but hey, it’s a step forward.

Still, I doubt we’ll ever again see glories akin to the Utah Liquor Company’s 1914 window display. I think the people who run the DABC would probably be happy to make the state dry again, if only the taxes weren’t so lucrative. But what an amazing photo, eh?

If you’re interested in Utah’s role in the history of Prohibition, the Tribune ran a good article earlier this week (read it fast, before it disappears behind the Trib‘s lame “archive” wall). Also, this article by local treasure Ken Sanders is worth a look; it’s a fascinating overview of the history of brewing and distilling in the state. (Short version: things used to be a lot less uptight than they are now.)

Finally, don’t forget to raise a glass of something and toast Repeal Day…