Shhhh, Speak Easy!
In his fine feature on page 34, our writer, Mike Shute, notes that the Little Water Distillery is believed to be located upon the site of the actual Tumble Inn, the fictional version of which was portrayed in the TV series Boardwalk Empire. When the 18th Amendment to the Constitution effectively banned the sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages beginning in 1920, it was known as Prohibition (1920–1933). The real Tumble Inn was purported to be a speakeasy in the Roaring 20s. Speakeasies, named for the need to “speak easy” (quietly), were illegal, hidden bars that arose in the U.S. during Prohibition to sell alcohol, using passwords and secrecy to try to evade authorities, and were within the control of gangsters as dramatized in Boardwalk Empire.
With a little digging, a glimpse of the colorful past of the Tumble Inn Hotel and Café on Baltic Avenue in the 1920’s Atlantic City unfolded. On the front page of the March 9, 1923 edition of the Atlantic City Gazette-Review, a headline touted “Raids Continue in Campaign to Make Resort Dry.” The article began “Revolvers were used and doors broken in during raids made here last night by Federal prohibition agents and police who seized a hundred quarts of liquor and arrested seven men.” One of these raids took place at the Tumble Inn, and named two men arrested there, a bartender and a porter, due to liquor having been found in four separate rooms. Another newspaper article of the same date in the Atlantic City Daily Press, provided more detail regarding the raids: “The first of yesterday’s descents was made at the ‘Tumble Inn’ Hotel and Café… . Here the scene quickly changed to one of ‘tumble out’ when agents announced their purpose and ordered the score of patrons to the street. Going through the various rooms of the hotel and behind the bar, the agents confiscated ten quarts of gin, six quarts of moonshine whiskey and five gallons of white mule.” The two men arrested “claimed that the establishment is owned by Louis Nathanson, alias ‘Hook,’ one of the Nathanson Brothers recently released from State Prison. The agents stated that they had visited the ‘Tumble Inn’ about ten days prior and found Louis Nathanson behind the bar serving drinks, and had arrested him.” It was reported in the same article that two other establishments were raided that night, owned respectively by two other “notorious” Nathanson brothers, Si and Jack, for whom arrest warrants were then issued.
In November 1923, one Frank Wells from the Tumble Inn was convicted by a Mays Landing jury of selling a pint of whiskey to an employee of the Prosecutor’s office. His sentence? Six months in the county jail, according to the Atlantic City Gazette-Review.
The Courier-Post, on December 28, 1923, recounted another raid at the Tumble Inn. “How county detectives found hidden panels opening into secret passageways leading to elaborately fitted bars … was related in Judge Smathers’ court.” On January 10, 1924, The Monmouth Inquirer, reporting on the same December raid, stated “Café proprietors had resorted to false walls to conceal their rum stocks, according to testimony offered in court in Atlantic City by county detectives in connection with raids made on Christmas Eve. They testified that at the Tumble Inn … the raiders found that by pressing a button they could enter a passageway leading to a liquor emporium.” Again, the bartender and Louis Nathanson, the “alleged proprietor,” were arrested.
On January 25, 1925, the Atlantic City Gazette-Review reported about one final raid on the Tumble Inn. The “notorious café” was visited by “Vice Squad detectives” once again who were “about to give up their efforts to locate liquor” when one of them dropped a cufflink at the top of a stairway. As he bent down to pick it up he noticed peculiarly shaped floorboards, which led to the discovery of a “cleverly concealed closet” with “fifteen gallons of alcohol, five one-gallon containers and five quarts of moonshine.” Another bartender was again arrested. The report went on to say that the Tumble Inn has been “raided times without number,” and that “the Vice Squad and Federal men make it a ‘port of call’ on many occasions.” The paper concluded that “It is said that this place is one of those that is due for a padlocking in the near future.” The Trenton Evening Times on May 29, 1925, confirmed that the Tumble Inn was on a list of Atlantic City hotel properties under consideration for padlocking by a judge for operating nuisance establishments.
Even after Prohibition had ended, an unnamed saloon at the same address owned by one Louis Nathanson, was the scene of a murder. The Press of Atlantic City on May 13, 1935, reported that about 4 a.m., after a male patron tried to enter the “women’s retiring room,” he was informed by the bartender he couldn’t go there. The patron then grabbed a stove poker and assaulted the bartender. He followed the bartender behind the bar, who grabbed a gun and fired two shots into the floor “to scare him,” then fired at the patron in self-defense. The bartender was arrested and held without bail, this time for murder.
After this, it seems the Tumble Inn faded into the mists of time, leaving us with its infamous legacy.
