Coastsiders Behaving Badly: Prohibition Exhibit Opens At San Mateo County History Museum

Rum runners, Flappers, speakeasies, and gambling. 

There’s good reason San Mateo County was labeled “the most corrupt county in California” during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and '30s. Often Coastsiders had a hand in the melee, as witnessed through the San Mateo County History Museum’s “Broads, Bootleggers and Bookies" exhibit, running through Dec. 31 in Redwood City. 

When liquor laws were in put into effect, the National Prohibition Act, or “Volstead Act,” saw prohis (slang for “Prohibition agent”) patrolling beaches, watching for rum runners or raiding stills. It was the foggy coast that provided the opportunity for smuggling Canadian whiskey from offshore ships and “running” it to other points on the Peninsula and further. The Prohibition Enforcement Act made California policemen responsible for ensuring laws were upheld, which was often a challenge, given towns like San Mateo and South San Francisco employed just three officers each at the time. 

Besides bringing it in illegally, Peninsula residents were also making alcohol themselves. The exhibit displays a collection of recovered stills. Moonshine, loosely called “bathtub gin," “hooch," “sauce," or “coffin varnish," was produced in homemade stills, some which posed a threat if improperly operated. In 1928, a barn was destroyed when a 600-gallon still exploded in El Granada.

And where to hide the moonshine? The museum invites exploration of a speakeasy kitchen, where a whisper sister, or female speakeasy owner, might be hiding liquor in the most obscure places. 

Carmen Blair, deputy director of the San Mateo County Museum, spent months transcribing tapes and gathering oral histories for the exhibit, many from Coastside residents. 

“It was fascinating exploring the terminology of the time period and seeing how they used slang,” says Blair. 

A video of interviews tells of local antics, like the dumping of liquor in Half Moon Bay and the dragging of 50-gallon kegs to the highway for pick up. Places in Miramar or Moss Beach provided “entertainment," where you could rent rooms and women for the night—described as notorious at best.

Sound bites from the Historical Association’s Don Ringler Collection offer “greatest hits” from the day, including Jessie Mygrants Davis, a Pigeon Point Lighthouse keeper’s daughter, recalling how a moonlit night was especially preferable to run liquor. Silvia Belli Dianda, the wife of a Coastside artichoke farmer, speaks of collecting bootleg that was washed ashore.

Dress of the time and even gambling games are on display, including a huge, glittering Wheel of Fortune-type wheel featuring pictures of race horses. Many games that moved to gambling dens had started out as carnival games.

With all of the activity, police had their hands full conducting raids in an attempt to uphold the law. And some law enforcers gave in to temptation by secretly siding with the opposition. In 1926, bootleggers obtained 74,000 cases of whiskey in Half Moon Bay after being warned that agents were planning a raid.  

Typically, the Coastside locale made it difficult for police to break up activity, due to limited access via Devils Slide or Highway 92.

“It’s an important time in our history," says Blair, "and one of our more colorful.”  

The San Mateo County History Museum is located at 2200 Broadway in Redwood City.  “Broads, Bootleggers and Bookies” runs through Dec.  31. Museum hours are Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and students, and free for children 5 and under.  Go to www.historysmc.org/ or follow them on Facebook or Twitter@smhistorymuseum.