Four-time New York Governor (and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate) Al Smith was an ardent opponent of Prohibition. So much so that, upon its repeal in 1933, August Anheuser Busch, Sr. sent six Clydesdales to New York to pull a beer wagon and present to Smith the first case of post-Prohibition Budweiser delivered in the state. It’d been specially flown in.
Smith is introduced in the best possible way, as seen in this British Pathé film:
“Governor Smith, there is nobody today in America that has done more to make it possible to have beer today.”
Just one accomplishment in a storied public career.
