Meadwood was bottled by the American Distilling Company, Pekin, Illinois.

Meadwood is good, honest, straight whiskey …

the "pumpkin" jugs?

[Laird's Applejack. -tterrace]

Sure do; I have one I just finished...

We always used the raffia-wrapped bottles for candles, especially the (groovy) drip ones.

That delicacy might comprise the contents of one of the jars ... or maybe preserved sheep eyeballs.

As to a delicatessen selling booze, the issue of who (if anyone) can sell what alcoholic product varies so much between and within the several states as to render a generalization impossible.

Three kinds. Here's an example of each. None have a label facing forward.

When Calvert was still a top-shelf brand.

I count 4 jars with striped lids that appear to be either onions or olives. And yet another jar with a plain lid that also appears to be olives. And are those Angostura Bitters next to the jars?

or at least I don't think so. Chianti sold in bottles with straw jackets. Back in the sixties and seventies people used to make them into lamp standards.

What a beautiful display of booze. It must have sparkled like a case full of diamonds at the finest jewelry store. I imagine that it looked like a mirage in the desert to many people right after Prohibition was repealed.

Was it typical for delicatessens to sell a liquor during that period? This is the first I have heard of it.

Having drank gallons of Seagram's 7 Crown in my life so far, I'm very curious about how "5 Crown" differed.

[Their budget line. Aged 2 years rather than 4. -tterrace]

I can imagine a drunk passing out in front of the display, and upon wakening, believing it to be Christmas, no matter what time of year it was.

I found the solitary jar of olives. Two shelves above that are a couple more jars; however I think those are pickled onions. Look for them just under the E and L in the word DELICATESSEN.

Fortunately they sold some Uneeda biscuits to help soak up some of that booze!

...but not much variety.

I only see one jar of olives....but 3 jars of what could be Maraschino cherries and a jar of cocktail onions.

Next to one of the jars of olives we have Manhattan cocktail, which I assume is pre-mixed. On the other end of the display is Martini cocktail. I always thought pre-mixed cocktails were a modern thing. Perhaps not. Only other thing I can think of is that they're just cocktail shakers, as they have a similar top. Hard to say.

[Below, from a 1934 liquor ad. - Dave]

Mel,I count four jars of olives...just saying

I always wanted to go to Toronto, and drink Canada dry.

Obviously Mr. Slavin was very excited to again sell these products. Since Prohibition officially ended Dec. 5, 1933, perhaps he used "Christmas tinsel" in this display because it was the season, or more likely because he was so happy to be able to sell liquor again.

Is that his own brand of "Leon's" (probably whiskey) in the bottom front row? Maybe he was a private brand pioneer, too.

There are three jars of olives, sorry. Still, outnumbered by a lot.

That sure is a lot of booze. Play "Where's Waldo", and look for the lone jar of olives.