Cocktail Culture: the Glamorous Gold Coast Years From Prohibition to 1960 September 27, 2012

Starting with the 1920s, the show includes clothes by some of the greatest designers of their time such as Mariano Fortuny and Elsa Schiaparelli. There are works of art for women's feet made by Salvatore Ferragamo in the 1930s and by Dalman and I Miller. Also included are hats by Tatiana of Saks 5th Ave and by Adrian of Hollywood. The exhibit begins at the time that Coe Hall was being built, in 1920, the same year in which the Prohibition Amendment became law (it was repealed in 1933). For their new house at Planting Fields, Mr. and Mrs. William Robertson Coe had a very large secret storage space built in the basement for bottles of liquor. To this day there still is a massive safe door hidden behind a nondescript board and batten door that might be found in any service area. It is clear that the Coes did not want Prohibition enforcement agents to know that they had seven hundred square feet of cellar with shelves for bottle storage. In Mr. Coe's study, sometimes known as the den, the bar is also a hidden space, its entrance door seemingly part of the room's Tudor style oak paneling.