In 1919, the United States made its boldest attempt at social reform: Prohibition. This "noble experiment" was aggressively promoted, and spectacularly unsuccessful, in New York City. In the first major work on Prohibition in a quarter century, and the only full history of Prohibition in the era's most vibrant city, Lerner describes a battle between competing visions of the United States that encompassed much more than the freedom to drink.

The general consensus (never proven) seems to be that there is more theatrical activity per capita in the Twin Cities are than anywhere else in the nation, New York included. This book therefore, is a humble attempt to make reader's a bit more aware of Minnesota's theatrical heritage. The material is arranged in four chronological divisions: Part One takes us from the soldier shows at old Fort Snelling to 1883 when not one but two Grand Opera Houses were constructed. Part Two ends with 1933, the date when Buzz Bainbridge gave up his theatre to become mayor. Part Three covers the thirty year interval between the demise of the Bainbridge Players and the opening of The Guthrie, while Part Four is concerned with the explosion of activity that immediately preceded and followed the opening of The Gutherie. This title has been selected as a Bernard Hewitt Award Nominee for outstanding Research in Theatre History.