THE RUM-RUNNING REIFELS ARE CHARGED
Prohibition was repealed in the U.S. on Dec. 3, 1933. But the American authorities were still determined to nab some of the bootleggers who had made millions of dollars during the roaring ’20s.
On July 7, 1934, they went after Vancouver’s most infamous rumrunners, the Reifel family.
“Allegations of a ring which flooded the Pacific Coast with illicit liquor in the last five years were disclosed today in charges against two Canadian distillers,” reported an Associated Press story out of Seattle.
“Henry Reifel, president of Brewers and Distillers Ltd. of Vancouver, and his son George C. Reifel were accused by the government of heading an elaborate combine which smuggled liquor worth $10,000,000 into the Pacific Northwest.
“The purported operations included formations of special companies and use of a fleet of boats. At least one (of the boats) was equipped to throw out a smoke screen to shield speedboats, which ran illicit cargoes ashore. The complaint charged the fleet was directed by wireless from British Columbia.”
The U.S. government launched a civil suit against the Reifels for $17.25 million. The suit alleged the value of the booze they ’d smuggled in was $10 million, and the other $7.25 million was for “unpaid taxes and import duties.”
The feds requested that the Reifels post a $250,000 bond each before they were set free, but the judge reduced this to $100,000 apiece. The Reifels paid it and quickly hightailed it back to Canada. They were back in their Vancouver offices when news of the suit hit the press.
The Reifels owned several local breweries and distilleries, including Vancouver Breweries and B.C. Distillery. In 1927 they had been investigated by the Canadian government under the Customs Act.
Henry Reifel failed to show up at the inquiry, claiming he was travelling “for his health.” But one of his associates, J.H. Irving, admitted that one of their companies owned vessels like the Malahat, the Quadra, the Coal Harbour “and other vessels engaged in the liquor business.”
The Malahat was the famous ship, said to hold 100,000 cases of alcohol. After it was loaded, it would sail south and dock outside U.S. waters, acting as a “mother ship,” or floating warehouse, for smaller, faster ships that would smuggle the booze to shore.
The charges against the Reifels wound up being dropped in July 1935 when the Reifels reached an out-of-court settlement with the U.S. and paid a $500,000 fine. They also forfeited the $200,000 they had paid to get out on bail.
But the $700,000 fine was probably a fraction of the money the Reifel family made smuggling booze into the U.S. during the 13 years of Prohibition.
Henry’s sons, George and Harry, built two of Vancouver’s landmark mansions, Casa Mia and Rio Vista, as well as the Commodore Ballroom and the Vogue Theatre.
The Vancouver Sun got a tour of Casa Mia a few years ago. The cost of the 20,782-square-foot house is unknown, but it was substantial: it has eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms and nine fireplaces.
The mansion has its own ballroom in the basement, complete with a sprung dance floor, men’s and women’s washrooms, and a stage.
It got a lot of use in the 1940s, when George Reifel’s jazz-loving son, George Jr., would bring home jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie for late-night parties.
Visitors to the ballroom could get a drink from a small, woodpanelled lounge with a lovely curved bar. It’s completely deco, down to the ceiling fixture and windows, and adjoins a billiards room with a full-sized pool table.
Still, the most unique aspect of the home is up in the third-floor tower. Originally a storage space, when George’s daughter Jane was born in 1938 her dad brought some artists up from Walt Disney Studios in California to remake it into “Dopey’s Room,” a playroom featuring murals of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
One of the legends of old Vancouver is that there was supposed to be a tunnel between George and Harry Reifels’ mansions on Marine Drive, where they hid some of the booze they smuggled to the U.S. But Jane Reifel said it didn’t exist.