Blind Pig

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
 
   
Wikipedia: Speakeasy
A speakeasy was an establishment that surreptitiously sold alcoholic beverages during the period of United States history known as Prohibition (1920–1933, longer in some states), when the sale, manufacture, and transportation (bootlegging) of alcohol was illegal. The term comes from a patron’s manner of ordering alcohol without raising suspicion — a bartender would tell a patron to be quiet and “speak easy”.
 
Speakeasies became more popular and numerous as the Prohibition years progressed, and also became more commonly operated by those connected to organized crime. Although police and federal Bureau of Prohibition agents would raid such establishments and arrest the owners and patrons, the business of running speakeasies was so lucrative that such establishments continued to flourish throughout the nation. In major cities, speakeasies often were elaborate, offering food, live bands, floor shows, and stripteases. Corruption was rampant; speakeasy operators commonly bribed police either to leave them alone or at least to give them advance notice of any planned raids.
 
Other slang terms for an establishment similar to a speakeasy are blind pig, and gin joint or gin mill.
   
Blind pigs
A blind pig, also known as a blind tiger, originated in the United States in the 1800s, when blue laws restricted the sale of alcoholic beverages. A saloonkeeper would charge customers to see an attraction (such as an animal), and provide a “complimentary” alcoholic beverage, thus circumventing the law.
 
The differences between a speakeasy and a blind pig were that a speakeasy was usually a higher class establishment (some in New York and other large cities even required coat and tie for men, and evening dress for women), and speakeasys invariably offered food, music or entertainment, or all three, besides drinking. A blind pig was generally a lower class dive, where only beer and liquor were available.
 
Estimates of the number of blind pigs in some major U.S. cities in the mid-1920s are:
. Chicago, Illinois: 10,000
. Detroit, Michigan: 15,000
. New York City, New York: 30,000-100,000
 
Prohibition
The federal Volstead Act, passed with new authority from the Eighteenth Amendment, put prohibition into effect on January 16, 1920. It lasted for almost fourteen years. After years of lobbying from Progressives (mainly the Anti-Saloon League and other militant organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union), the temperance crusade successfully lobbied states to pass new “dry” laws prohibiting “booze” and “Demon Rum”. The first state to go entirely dry was Kansas in 1881 (see Alcohol laws of Kansas). States which did not go dry were referred to as “wet” states.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
blind-pig U.S. colloq., a place where liquor is illicitly sold; hence blind-pigger, -pigging
1887 Minnesota Gen. Statutes Suppl. (1888) 248 Whoever shall attempt to evade or violate any of the laws of this state..by means of the artifice or contrivance known as the ‘*Blind Pig’ or ‘Hole in the Wall’..shall..be punished.
1903 N.Y. Even. Post 23 Sept., But a ‘blind pig’ is at best but a sordid institution.
1961 Spectator 28 July 135 Blind pigs—establishments with anonymous blank facades entered by a basement front door with a peep-hole
 
Google Books
The City in Slang:
New York Life and Popular Speech
By Irving L. Allen
New York, NY: Oxford University Press US
1993
Pg. 72:
The old terms blind tiger and blind pig were revived for humorous use during the Prohibition and New Yorkers applied them to any speakeasy. Blind tiger dates back to the 1850s and blind pig was first recorded in 1887; blind pigger, the proprietor, was in used by 1894. Both terms are of Western and Southern origin and of obscure etymology. The idea of “blind” in both terms might refer to the old custom of covering the windows of such establishments—“blinding” them. Or the idea of getting “blind drunk” might have influenced the names or their subsequent popularity. For a more fanciful explanation, consider the title of a song of 1908, Bl-nd and P-g Spells Blind Pig, by Junie McCrea and Albert Von Tilzer.