Associated Press – October 24, 1933
RENO, Nev. – “Dynamite Gus” Sonnenberg, former champion of the heavyweight wrestlers, was wondering today how the Reno divorce colony would enjoy his pork and beef sandwiches without the 3.2 per cent beer he had planned would go with them.
The City Council refused Sonnenberg a permit to sell beer in his recently opened barbecue shack, after pastors of churches in the neighborhood had protested “we want this particular district to remain clean.”
Said the Rev. Brewster Adams, of the Baptist Church, to the council:
“We are not dumb. We know that the granting of a beer permit to this place is just incidental to an invasion of this district by similar hurdy gurdy establishments.
“We have been tolerant in the past, but if the council should see fit to grant this permit it would constitute a direct challenge to us to clean up the rest of this town. You will just turn Reno upside down for a pork sandwich.”
Other ministers spoke in similar vein, whereupon the council, by a 4 to 3 vote, with Mayor E.E. Roberts casting the deciding ballot, turned down Sonnenberg’s application.
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