OPINION: A real story of Prohibition in Brooklyn Heights
In a recent article and photo spread in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, reporter Mary Frost examined a recent shoot for hit HBO show “Boardwalk Empire” in Brooklyn Heights.
Monroe Place, in particular, was transformed into a street from 1931, complete with vintage automobiles, actors wearing fedoras, actresses wearing cloche hats and an old-style peanut vendor. (We trust he wasn’t doing the type of madcap stunts Chico Marx did as a peanut vendor in the 1933 classic “Duck Soup.”)
For those who don’t know, “Boardwalk Empire” deals with the rise of organized crime during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and early ’30s. Meyer Lansky, Al Capone and Arnold Rothstein are depicted as characters. But Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights had their own Prohibition history — and part of it may have been unveiled by the late Eagle columnist Dennis Holt.