Prohibition in Houston: Bone-dry Cereal Beverage

[sevfiv 1,344]

I came across this advertisement from 1918 for Houston Ice & Brewing Association/Magnolia Brewery's "refreshing" and "nutritious" drink that is aptly named for the time. The Society for Historical Archaeology's "Bottles on the Border" mentions it on pages 294-295:

The Houston Ice and Brewing Co. opened the Magnolia Brewery at 4th and Washington in Houston in 1893. After a somewhat sudden reorganization and name change in 1915 to Houston Ice & Brewing Association, the company brewed beer until operations shut down for Texas Prohibition in 1918. Although the firm sold most of its beer in generic bottles with paper labels, it sold “splits” in embossed bottles from ca. 1910 to ca. 1918 (Figure 8-12). However, the company brewed a nonintoxicating cereal beverage called Bone Dry in an attempt to survive Prohibition. After Prohibition, the firm reopened in 1934.

http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/EPChap8a.pdf

[Firebird65 55]

Interesting post. I was at the UH Library last Sunday scrolling through old microfilm researching for my history of Aldine High School project and by accident and coincidence I came across the papers for the day Prohibition ended in Houston - September 15, 1933. Both the Post and Chronicle were filled front to back with ads for beer and stories about where you could buy it. It literally was as if nothing else was going on that day.

Edited October 16, 2010 by Firebird65

[editor 674]

Interesting post. I was at the UH Library last Sunday scrolling through old microfilm researching for my history of Aldine High School project and by accident and coincidence I came across the papers for the day Prohibition ended in Houston - September 15, 1933. Both the Post and Chronicle were filled front to back with ads for beer and stories about where you could buy it. It literally was as if nothing else was going on that day.

Sounds like Super Bowl Sunday.