Prohibition Turns Saloon "Globe Cafe" Into A Dime Museum

1920, and a definingly strange moment in the history of sideshows and dime museums. The enactment of the Volstead Act in late-1919 began to close established bars and saloons across New York City. At just the same moment-- though unrelated by reasons of inherent social forces-- the institution of the dime museum, which had like the saloon had been a ubiquitous urban diversion, had all but disappeared. One enterprising bar owner Sam Dolliver (and showman partner, well-known, Midwestern dime museum manager Fred K.