I attended the performance of A TOAST TO PROHIBITION at the Minnesota History Center yesterday afternoon. It was a musical program with songs related to temperance and temptation. It was a entertaining and educational. While the program was in progress, historical photos and newspaper articles were shown on the screen that was at the back of the stage. Some interesting facts include: Congress passed the Volstead Act in 1919, which established the government’s right to investigate and punish violators of Prohibition (Volstead was from MN); in 1925, Collier’s magazine ranked San Francisco and St. Paul as the two “wettest cities” in the nation; and a statistic from 1926 estimated that 100 Americans died each week from toxic alcohol.
Dan Chouinard, Maria Jette, and The Rose Ensemble were some of the performers and they all did a great job. I saw many of them in CAFE EUROPA last year and that was outstanding. The research involved in these productions is impressive as is the musical talent.