The Bloody Mary Book

CHAPTER 1

The Bloody Mary: A Drink of Legend and Lore

Prohibition Put the Brakes on the Party

In the 1970s supporters of the antiwar movement were referred to as the doves, while those backing the war in Vietnam were called the hawks. Back in nineteenth-century America we had the wets versus the drys, and the issue was bourbon, not bullets.

Starting in the mid-nineteenth century a coalition was formed of rural Protestants and social Progressives regardless of their affiliation as Democrats or Republicans, and in the early twentieth century these groups were joined by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to become the Anti-Saloon League. The emphasis was to ban alcohol state by state, and after most of the nation had gone dry, the Eighteenth Amendment, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban on alcoholic beverages. The act was ratified in 1920, and for thirteen years was the law of the land—sort of. In truth, what the nation missed out on was not liquor but the tax revenues it generated when sold legally. In many ways it was seen as a conflict between rural Protestants and urban Catholics.

The act itself had the appearance of Swiss cheese. Wine used in a religious context was fine, and physicians could prescribe liquor for their patients.

The lack of legal sale gave rise to a whole new industry of illegal operators—the bootleggers. Urban crime rates soared as organized crime codified the bootleg liquor market, and the Volstead Act proved impossible to enforce. The speakeasy replaced the saloon. The Volstead Act went into effect on January 17, 1920, and within an hour, there were police reports of its having been broken.

In 1933 Congress proposed the Twenty-First Amendment to repeal Prohibition.

Although the national law was no longer in force, states and counties retained the right to set limits on or ban the sale of alcoholic beverages.

A Queen Dubbed Bloody Mary

With all of the attention paid to her father, King Henry VIII, and her younger sister, who reigned as Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary I has become almost a footnote in the history books. But she is the one whose nickname for the ages has been Bloody Mary.

Born in 1516, Mary was the only surviving child of Henry and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. After her parents' marriage was annulled—because Henry had yet to start the Church of England that would provide him with future divorces—Mary was declared illegitimate.

Five wives later when Henry VIII died in 1547, the crown was passed to his only son. King Edward VI was just ten years old at the time, and died a mere six years later but not before he had set a plan in place to exclude his two half-sisters from the line of succession. His choice instead was Lady Jane Grey, a distant relative who was the granddaughter of Henry's younger sister, who ruled for nine days before she was overthrown by Mary in 1553.

Mary remained a devout Roman Catholic and gained her sanguine nickname for the executions she ordered of Protestant clergy while trying to link England once again to the papacy. Her targets included Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, among countless others. Mary was thirty-seven at the time of her accession, and she was desperate to produce a Catholic heir so the throne would not go to her Protestant sister, Elizabeth, upon her death.

She married King Philip II of Spain and remained childless. There were reports of two "false pregnancies" during which she gained weight but no child was born, and historians now believe these were ectopic pregnancies. Mary died five years into her reign in 1558.

"Bloody Mary" was also memorialized in the children's nursery rhyme: "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row." History disagrees on the actual significance of the bells, shells, and maids: The bells could represent church bells; the shells may be a nod to Saint James, whose symbol is the scallop shell; and the maids could be Catholic nuns. But other interpretations tie the silver bells to Mary's elaborate dresses, the shells to her fondness for exotic foods, and the maids to her ladies-in-waiting.

Telling the Future via Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary is also a lesser character rooted in nineteenth-century American folklore that ranges from benign to truly malevolent depending on which version of the tale is being told. Whether she's a ghost, phantom, or spirit, she is credited with the ability to reveal the future if conjured.

The ritual, primarily performed by young girls in order to see a vision of their future husband, is about as eerie and creepy as a haunted house. In one version the girls walk backward up the stairs in a darkened house with a mirror in one hand and a candle in the other. An alternative scenario is that a group of young women ritualistically call out her name in a dimly lit room.

If all goes well, they're supposed to catch a glimpse of their future husband. But it's not that easy. Sometimes they would see a skull or the face of the Grim Reaper; this is a sign that they're going to die before marriage.

But that's not the only thing to fear. Instead of being a harmless apparition, Bloody Mary can be evil; she is said to scream, or have the power to strangle or drink the blood of those who seek her. Not nearly as nice as a cocktail.