On April 7, 1933 licensed beer halls reopened downtown after 13 years of prohibition and San Diegans turned out to celebrate.
From The San Diego Union, Saturday, April 8, 1933:
Far West Dry Again as Beer Absorbed
NOBODY ARRESTED AS DRUNK WHEN BEER TIDE FLOWS
Ach, du Lieber Augustine—with no arrests for drunkenness or drunken driving!
That was New Beer’s Day in San Diego yesterday—there was beer or beer talk everywhere except in police statistics.
“So far we have had no arrests for drunkenness or drunken driving; no serious accidents and no crimes attributable to beer,” said Police Chief Robert Newsom last night. “The people on the streets have been in a very jovial mood all day, but they have not been drunk.
“This has really been an unusual day, for ordinarily we make several arrests for drunkenness and drunken driving.”
This was a happy town, full of hops and malt, until a little after noon yesterday. Then the beer practically disappeared, through that startling new economic combination of underproduction and overconsumption, so that the town’s tongue was hanging out again.
13-Year Thirst Rules
It was not especially fine beer weather, as beer weather goes, but there was a biergarten spirit in the downtown district for all that.
Three trucks with trailers were all that got through to San Diego, and although last night nobody knew how much beer came in on them, everybody seemed to know that it was all gone.
The demand, whetted by some 13 years of frustration, absolutely swamped the supply of legal beer. Wholesalers reported that all the beer they hoped to get had been sold days ago, and many licensed retailers were without beer to retail.
Eastside beer had a monopoly yesterday, as the hours went by and an expected truckload of Rainer failed to materialize. Consignments of Acme, Golden Glow and other Pacific coast brews were due her last night, today and tomorrow, but the distributors themselves knew very little about it. There was so much thirsty territory for the bee to get through before reaching here.
Orders Slashed
Orders were slashed drastically, until only 20 to 40 percent of the quantity ordered was delivered and late orders were not filled at all. Meanwhile the thirsty were scouring the city for beer. Few grocery stores had it; the article was scarce in the suburbs, and downtown establishments ran out repeatedly, sometimes resorting to heroic measures to replenish.
The Rendevous at the U.S. Grant hotel was the center of the beer zone, and several new records were established by Fred Boyson, Frank Lincoln, Louie Rodriguez and Jerry O’Connell, expert bartenders from Agua Caliente, who served the crowd that jammed the establishment.
A crowd of about 100 surrounded the old-time German band on the sidewalk when the doors opened at 9:20 yesterday morning.
At 10:03 the pumps sucked air, but a new supply came in. This lasted until 11:45 and then gave out just as Manager Eddie Bernard rolled up in a vegetable truck loaded wit more beer. This supply gave out at 2:45.
New Service Records
Bernard had sent trucks direct to Los Angeles, and one of them was expected to return with a fresh cargo late last evening. The “score” as released by the Rendezvous was 19,200 glasses an hour or one and one-half glasses a second. Brew experts maintain this is a record. More customers were turned away than were served due to shortages in supply and to the near impossibility of penetrating the crowd that saturated the bar while beer was actually on tap.
Randel’s coffee shop, 244 Broadway, was among the first to get beer and then ran out of it at 9:30 a.m. A fresh supply lasted until shortly after noon. This experience was typical in San Diego although the Golden Lion, the Cabrillo and a few other restaurants were supplied.
Leighton’s dairy lunch at 951 Fourth avenue ran out of bottled beer at 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon, but continued to serve the draught brew until 7 p.m. This was a “sustained flight” record equalled by no other establishment, so far as could be learned last night.
Prices Hold Steady
Prices ranged from 13 to 25 cents for a pint bottle, 12-ounce glasses generally going at 10 cents. Steins of draught beer brought 15 or 20 cents , and in purchasing cases at retail the problem was to find the beer, not to learn the price.
The rush of customers to beer parlors brought another rush of license seekers to the city hall. The fees on 122 beer licenses granted yesterday brought $10,650 into the city treasury. Thursday and Friday combined brought the city $25,700 for 285 beer licenses.
