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Travel back to the Prohibition era and watch President Franklin Roosevelt sign the beer bill into law

Travel back to the Prohibition era and watch President Franklin Roosevelt sign the beer bill into law

“To drink or not to drink,” a dilemma that divided the United States from the ratification of Prohibition in 1919 to its repeal in 1933.
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Related Articles: Eighteenth Amendment , prohibition , Prohibition , Franklin D. Roosevelt

Transcript

NARRATOR: To drink or not to drink—this dilemma tore the United States apart for decades until in 1919 the nation voted the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution into law, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. For 13 years, not to drink was the law of the land, but the controversy continued.

In 1932 the Democratic Party's candidate for president proclaimed:

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: "We advocate the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment."

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Now President Roosevelt, in the Cabinet Room of the White House, is about to sign the long-awaited beer bill. The president signs the bill.

[Music]
Happy days are here again.
The skies above are clear again.
Let's sing a song of cheer again.
Happy days are here again.
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