--- title: Prohibition's Last Call: Inside the Speakeasies of New York in 1933 description: Photos shot by the great Margaret Bourke-White for FORTUNE magazine in 1933, capturing the pre-repeal atmosphere in New York's speakeasies canonical: https://time.com/3613626/prohibition-photos-inside-the-speakeasies-of-new-york-in-1933/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-01T16:29:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:45.503Z og:title: Prohibition's Last Call: Inside the Speakeasies of New York in 1933 og:description: Photos shot by the great Margaret Bourke-White for FORTUNE magazine in 1933, capturing the pre-repeal atmosphere in New York's speakeasies og:url: https://time.com/3613626/prohibition-photos-inside-the-speakeasies-of-new-york-in-1933/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86846da1e8a68e19/69876bd035ba6f01c1c05a73/141202-prohibition-1933-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: New York Speakeasy 1933 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Prohibition's Last Call: Inside the Speakeasies of New York in 1933 twitter:description: Photos shot by the great Margaret Bourke-White for FORTUNE magazine in 1933, capturing the pre-repeal atmosphere in New York's speakeasies twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86846da1e8a68e19/69876bd035ba6f01c1c05a73/141202-prohibition-1933-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Prohibition's Last Call: Inside the Speakeasies of New York in 1933 > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Dec 1, 2014 4:29 PM UTC  Caption from FORTUNE. Social atmosphere has made the popularity of this speakeasy, which is full of gay chintz, red and white awnings, indirect lights. The barroom is gold and Victorian-green. Caption from FORTUNE. Social atmosphere has made the popularity of this speakeasy, which is full of gay chintz, red and white awnings, indirect lights. The barroom is gold and Victorian-green. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Dec 1, 2014 4:29 PM UTC The Prohibition era in America, which lasted for well over a decade and—inconceivable as it might be today—effectively banned the sale and production of booze in the United States, ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on Dec. 5, 1933\. The dozen or so years during which Prohibition imperfectly reigned, meanwhile, have endured in the national consciousness and the pop-culture pantheon as a period of unparalleled violence, gangsterism and corruption. Here, LIFE.com offers up photos made in a number of New York speakeasies by Margaret Bourke-White. Most famous for her work as a LIFE photographer—along with Peter Stackpole, Thomas McAvoy and Alfred Eisenstaedt, she was one of the weekly’s original four staff photographers—Bourke-White was for years an editor and photographer at [FORTUNE](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/); the pictures in this gallery were shot for that storied Time Inc. monthly, three years before LIFE began publishing. Bourke-White’s photos ran in the June 1933 issue of FORTUNE, under the simple and evocative title, “Speakeasies of New York.” --- > “” --- Duly acknowledging the prescience of that unknown writer’s words, we’ll just end here by noting that Bourke-White’s pictures do, in fact, provide a sense of how New Yorkers of the ’20s and ’30s lived. Judging by the photos, some of them lived pretty well, indeed. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at_ [_@LizabethRonk_](https://twitter.com/lizabethronk)_._ _Follow FORTUNE_ [_@FortuneMagazine_](https://twitter.com/FortuneMagazine)_._  Caption from FORTUNE. At the Hunt Club in the theatrical district, you will find little swank, perhaps the best whisky in town. . . . A modern filing system lists the 32,000 \[people\] eligible to the Hunt Club. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from FORTUNE. At luncheon half a dozen dogs feed amicably at their mistresses' side. This bar is chromium, rose and black. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from FORTUNE."No speakeasy is as popular with aviators off duty as this quiet place. Its proprietor owns tow planes, is himself an expert pilot. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from FORTUNE. In the heart of a business section Thomas keeps this speakeasy on the second floor. . . . Drinking starts at 8:30 A.M. when full-bellied Irish contractors drop in for a solidly comforting rye. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from FORTUNE. Champagne from right to left, on mantel: half nip, nip, pint, imperial pint, magnum, jeroboam, rehoboam, methuzelah, salmanazar, balthazar. . . . Twenty-nine waiters and eight chefs are none too many for a popular place. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from FORTUNE. Social atmosphere has made the popularity of this speakeasy, which is full of gay chintz, red and white awnings, indirect lights. The barroom is gold and Victorian-green. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Scene inside a New York City speakeasy during Prohibition, 1933. 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