Taps flow again in brief beer orgy

April 7, 1933: Los Angeles’ beer supply lasted only about two hours on the day that Prohibition’s ban on beer was lifted and the sale of beer with 3.2 % alcohol by volume became legal after 13 years. “After a brief beer orgy yesterday Los Angeles and surrounding communities last night faced a drought almost as acute as in the strictest prohibition era,” The Times reported under the headline, “City Beer Orgy Ends in Famine.” When the ban was lifted, only the Los Angeles Brewing Co. was producing beer locally. It sold 200,000 cases and 1,600 barrels before supplies ran out, The Times said. “At the brewery yesterday hundreds of trucks and many citizens lined up in the hope of getting beer. A score of policemen were necessary to handle the traffic on North Main street where the brewery is located.” Between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., 19 people were arrested for intoxication. A 34-year-old printer was killed “when a heavily laden beer truck became unmanageable through failure of brakes” and crashed through a brick building at 8212 Santa Monica Blvd., The Times said.

Prohibition did not officially end until Dec. 5, 1933, after the 18th Amendment had been repealed and the 21st Amendment was ratified.