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Bauer, BryceBauer, Bryce | Alt 1
Bauer, BryceBauer, Bryce | Alt 1

Bryce Bauer

Bryce T. Bauer is a Hearst Award-winning journalist who has written for the Daily Iowan, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Saveur, and other publications. He is the author of Gentlemen Bootleggers. He coproduced and co-wrote West Iowa Whiskey Cookers, a documentary on Prohibition-era bootlegging, winner of Best Documentary at the Iowa Independent Film Festival and Best Documentary at the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival.
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Gentlemen Bootleggers
Gentlemen Bootleggers (4 Formats) ›
By Bryce Bauer
Trade Paper Price 18.99

Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Published Oct 2016

During Prohibition, while Al Capone was rising to worldwide prominence as Public Enemy Number One, the townspeople of rural Templeton, Iowa—population just 418—were busy with a bootlegging empire of their own. Led by Joe Irlbeck, the whip-smart and gregarious son of a Bavarian immigrant, the outfit of farmers, small merchants, and even the church Monsignor worked together to create a whiskey so excellent it was ordered by name: Templeton Rye. Gentlemen Bootleggers tells a never-before-told tale of ingenuity, bootstrapping, and perseverance in one small town, showcasing a group of immigrants who embraced the American ideals of self-reliance, dynamism, and democratic justice. It relies on previously classified Prohibition Bureau investigation files, federal court case files, extensive newspaper archive research, and a recently disclosed interview with kingpin Joe Irlbeck. Unlike other Prohibition-era tales of big-city gangsters, it provides an important reminder that bootlegging wasn’t only about glory and riches, but could be in the service of a higher goal: producing the best whiskey money could buy.