By Phil Frank, Sausalito Historical Society
The late Phil Frank wrote the following history of Prohibition in Sausalito for the Arcadia Sausalito book:
PHOTO FROM ARCADIA BOOK SAUSALITO
Confiscated alcohol is poured into the Bay under the watchful eyes of Sausalito officials and two local kids
In the 1920s and early 1930s, Sausalito became a major player in Northern California's effort to skirt the 18th Amendment, which had made it illegal to manufacture, sell, or transport intoxicating beverages in this country. On the surface, the Volstead Act, the law that implemented the 18th Amendment, was more or less observed. Beer breweries switched to soft drinks or low-alcohol "brews," or just went out of business. Liquor stores shut down. Bars became soda parlors. Hundreds of distilleries closed their doors.
But Prohibition, as it was popularly called, was doomed from the beginning. The trouble was that it took such a long time to die—from 1919 to 1933. And during that time, much of the rum- running and bootlegging action on the West Coast centered on Sausalito. The reasons were obvious. First, it was the closest harbor to the Golden Gate. Fast boats—rumrunners as they were called—could be built and serviced in the town's boatyards, moored in Richardson's Bay, and fueled at its docks. Second, Sausalito was the jumping-off point for most North Bay ferryboats headed to San Francisco. At night, boatloads of liquor were brought to the rocky Mann County coastline in speedy boats, operating from Canadian and Mexican "mother ships" lying offshore in international waters. The cargo would be loaded onto trucks or into cars and, traveling the back roads, funneled through Sausalito to the ferry landings at Water and Princess Streets.
The town had a two-man police force generally tolerant of local "soda parlors" known to lace their lemonade with alcohol, as long as the owners weren't too flagrant about it. It was only when barrels came in the front door, or grocery stores were found open in the wee hours of the morning with their curtains drawn, that local authorities clamped down.
Federal Prohibition officers based in San Francisco were highly suspicious of the little town across the bay. They knew there was alcohol traffic, speakeasies, and stills in operation there. But the only way to get to Sausalito was on the ferryboats, and the ferry workers were mostly locals. A phone call from San Francisco to Sausalito could beat a ferryboat to its slip any day; so every time the officers arrived, an air of temperance pervaded the town.
Federal authorities were convinced that Sausalito police were in cahoots with the rumrunners, or were aiding and abetting the bootleggers. One headline from the Sausalito News in the 1920s read, "Prohi Officers Draw Guns On Sausalito Police." The fact that Mason's Distillery was located in Sausalito also drew the attention of the Feds. Since Mason's was a major producer of whiskey prior to the 18th Amendment, after 1919 it was allowed, under federal supervision, to continue producing alcohol for industrial and medical purposes. By 1925, it was generating two million gallons of denatured alcohol annually, nearly one-sixth of all the alcohol produced in the United States.
During Prohibition's lifespan, Sausalito hosted several speakeasies—neighborhood bars operating out of private homes—as well as unknown numbers of illegal stills back in the hills. Rowboats slipped under wharves after dark and tapped signals on waterfront restaurant floor hatches, after which "hootch" would be passed in gunny sacks into waiting hands. When the Sausalito Woman's Club was preparing for a party, a call could be placed to the Sausalito Pharmacy, and a "prescription" for five gallons of medicinal alcohol would be written.
The nation breathed a sigh of relief when the 18th Amendment was repealed, but it was a wistful breath in Sausalito. Here there was a hint of regret that the income flowing from Prohibition, the excitement it offered, and its opportunities for enjoying forbidden pleasure, was a thing of the past.
While the Historical Society is closed to the public, the Arcadia Sausalito book is available at the library, Sausalito Books by the Bay and online.