L. M. Thompson’s Outcry Over “Bone Dry”

                  

Above is a 1917 advertisement sent by the Thompson Straight Whiskey Company of Louisville, Kentucky to its mail order customers all over the United States.  It sounded the alarm of its proprietor, Livingston Mims Thompson, to a recently passed act of Congress that in effect outlawed the importation of whiskey into otherwise “dry” states and localities, even if state laws permitted it. The provision was known as the Reed “Bone Dry” Law.

Even states that outlawed the making and sales of alcoholic beverages within their borders had left loopholes that allowed resident to buy liquor in “wet” states and have it delivered to them in their homes.  This facet of the liquor trade, roundly deplored by prohibitionists, meant that the drinking public could order for their personal use any quantity of whiskey in “dry” Kansas, Maine, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oregon, Colorado and Virginia.  Other dry states put some restrictions on quantities.  Mississippi imbibers could import only a single gallon but as often as desired;  Alabama and South Carolina, twelve gallons annually;  Washington nine gallons annually, and North Carolina six gallons annually. 

Whiskey men catering to this trade organized as the National Association of Mail-Order Liquor Dealers.  At their 1916 annual meeting in Louisville the principal speaker was distiller R. E. Wathen.  The Kentuckian provided an energetic pep talk. “Yours is a practically new avenue of trade, brought into existence by abandonment of another avenue of supply between producer and consumer. …Your line of work is to carry to millions in local option territory through a perfectly legal channel a product that they have a perfectly legal right to have.”

Among those listening intently to Wathen’s words of encouragement was young Livingston Thompson,who would be elected at the meeting as the second vice president of the organization.  Born in 1885 in Georgia to a locally-born father and a Mississippi-born mother, Thompson had come late to the liquor business, moving to Louisville and opening his company in 1910 at the age of 25.  The 1910 census found him there, living with his wife of five years, Helen; their four-year-old daughter, Mary, and a servant woman.

Thompson reputation rose rapidly in the fast-paced world of Louisville liquor.  He established himself on famed “Whiskey Row,” occupying 111 Main Street, a four story brick building characterized by Renaissance Revival-arched windows  and vertical cast iron columns. 

 The space provided by these quarters allowed him to issue a number of brands for his mail order trade.  They included "Country Club,” “Forelock,”"Lucky Stone,” "Old Kentucky,” "Old Medicinal Corn,” "Old Mountain Corn,” "Thompson Old Reserve,” "Thompson Select,” "Thompson Straight,” "Very Old Special,” and "White Bird Gin.” “Thompson Select” was his flagship label.  The owner never bothered to register any of his brands with the federal government.

Not that Thompson was antagonistic to Washington, D.C., His advertising consistently emphasized that he was fervent believer in the Bottle-in-Bond Act that helped regulate the quality of whiskey.  A company folding trade card depicted Uncle Sam peering through a door at a “The Fakir at Work” who was busy mixing up phony whiskey using a variety of fluids, including “cologne spirits.”  Uncle Sam, shown involved in “Catching the Fakir,” states:  “The label must tell the truth, so always read carefully the label.”

Thompson’s labels provided considerable reading.  Shown here is a bottle of Thompson’s Select Straight Kentucky Whiskey with its wordy label.  Another screed was affixed to the back. The price list Thompson sent his customers listed a wide range of prices for his whiskey, with “Select Straight” topping out at $10.50 for four quarts.  In today’s dollar that would be the equivalent of almost $60 a bottle, very expensive whiskey for the times.  Money may have been no object for those in “parched lands” who could afford good liquor.

The mail order liquor business proved highly successful for Thompson.  He was able to open a branch in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  More important his growing wealth allowed him about 1914 to buy into a distillery. It was the Old Kentucky Distillery in Jefferson County, known in federal records as RD#354, 5th district.  Shown here, this facility had been established sometime before 1880 and knew several owners until sold to Dick Meschendorf in 1892 who changed its name to The Old Kentucky.

Insurance records from that year indicate that the distillery was of frame construction with three warehouses, two of brick with metal or slate roofs and the third ironclad with a similar roof.  Animal pens, where cattle were being fed on  spent mash, were located 115 feet downwind of the still-house.  Records indicate that Thompson was drawing most or all of his whiskey from this facility.

The young proprietor’s success was to be short-lived.  In his 1916 talk to the mail-order liquor dealers an overly-optimistic R. E. Wathen had remarked:  “Not yet has the wrath of the would-be wrecker of that other avenue of trade been turned on you with full force.”  But even as he spoke the Anti-Saloon League had fixed in its gunsights on the mail order liquor trade and the state liquor law loopholes that made it possible.  As an ally they had Senator James A. Reed of Missouri.  Shown right, Democrat Reed had been born in Ohio, moved in maturity to Kansas City to practice law, became its mayor and later a Missouri senator.  A fierce opponent of alcohol, Reed authored the “Bone Dry” Amendment that became law in 1917.

This legislation represented a revolutionary reversal of Congressional policies.  Overturning the right of each state to set policies for the importation of liquor, the Reed Amendment dictated a Federal mandate. States that banned the making or sale of intoxicants but permitted their importation and receipt for personal use found their laws nullified. The Reed Amendment forbid any such imports except for sacramental, medicinal, or scientific purposes — potentially cutting off booze for recreational drinking in the comfort of home for millions of Americans.

Thompson in Louisville was quick to recognize the dagger that had been thrust into the mail order liquor trade.  Although the law had been passed in March 1917, perhaps recognizing the disruption it would cause, Congress delayed its implementation until July 1.  That gave Thompson time to warn his customers of the impending doom.  He issued the statement below, declaring that:  “Our business these many years has been principally selling direct to consumers in local option and prohibition States.  The Reed “Bone Dry” Law…took the main part of this territory….”  He still had a stock of Genuine Old Kentucky whiskey to sell, but warned but he likely would make no effort to produce more, presumably because of the impending loss of his customer base.

The young liquor dealer was not misleading his customers.  The last Louisville business directory entry for the Thompson Straight Whiskey Company was 1918. In the short span of a decade he had made himself one of Louisville’s leading whiskey men, recognized as a genius at the mail order trade, only to be brought low by the Prohibition lobby and Senator Reed.  Two years later Livingston Thompson was dead at the age of 35, cause of death unrecorded. His gravestone is shown here. 

Note:  This post has been gathered from a wide range of sources, including the Wine & Spirits Bulletin of July 1916 that reported the speech by R.E. Wathen.  A “guest-written” piece on the Wathens was posted on this website on August 1, 2020.  A vignette on Dick Meschendorf appeared here on February 5, 2013.