The Evening Star (December 31, 1946)
Snow from 3 to 5 inches deep to brighten New Year Eve
Temperature may dip to 22 as D.C. stages record celebration
New Year Eve revelers looked for an added touch of holiday tradition tonight as snow began falling in the District at 1:15 p.m. The Weather Bureau said the snow, mixed with sleet, would continue until tomorrow morning, reaching a depth of 3 to 5 inches. The low temperature tonight will be 22 degrees.
The Capital was due for a taste of the same kind of weather which will usher in the new year for most of the nation. An extensive mass of cold air covered most of the country from the Rockies to the Atlantic Coast.
Sunny skies were anticipated on the Pacific Coast, where tomorrow the Rose Bowl football game is scheduled. Some games as Florida’s Orange Bowl and New Orlean’s Sugar Bowl also were safe from winter’s icy touch, but some of the inland contests were in line for a chill.
It will be “business as usual” Thursday morning, but between now and then many a toast for a happy and prosperous 1947 will be offered and drunk. Night clubs, hotels and restaurants are prepared to handle the biggest crowds in their histories.
A strictly nonalcoholic greeting will be extended the New Year by 400 members of Alcoholics Anonymous and their friends attending a supper dance at the Walsh Center, 1523 22nd St. N.W. Stimulants will be limited to coffee, soft drinks and music.
Those planning an evening out but delaying to make arrangements until the last minute are likely to be disappointed, as hotel after hotel reported all reservations taken. Most private clubs said their reservation lists had been closed days ago.
The Congressional Country Club will hold its first New Year eve dinner-dance since 1941. The club was used as an OSS training center during the war. Its reservation list of 770 was closed a week ago.
Both the Army and Navy County Club in Arlington and the Army Navy Club, Farragut Square and I Street N.W., will hold dinner dances.
The law prohibits bar service after 2 a.m., but most places said they intended to stay open for dancing until 3 a.m. Liquor stores can sell bottled goods until midnight but most of them plan to close anywhere from one to three hours before that.
“Just to give the boys a chance to celebrate a little themselves,” as one dealer put it.
Varying prices
Prices run from a $1.50 minimum cover charge to $12 a plate for dinner, with drinks extra. Champagne, where it can be had, will cost from $6.50 to $16 a bottle depending on the brand and whether it’s foreign or domestic. Drinks made with Scotch, rye or bourbon will cost from 50 cents up – mostly up.
For taxicab drivers, New Year’s Eve is the big night of the year and companies said they expected nearly all of the 8,846 cabs to be on the streets.
“Most of them will do more business in that one night than in two ordinary shifts,” a company official said.
All the large downtown moving picture theaters and many neighborhood theaters are planning midnight shows.
Parties for servicemen
Four clubs are planning celebrations for servicemen. They include a dance at the Penthouse USO Club, 17th and K Streets N.W.; a party and dance at the United Nations Service Center, 500 North Capitol St.; a costume ball for Negro servicemen at the Banneker Service Center. 2500 Georgia Ave. N.W., and a formal dance at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, sponsored by the Women’s Battalion No. 1 of Recreation Services, Inc.
Andrews Field will celebrate with a USO show at 8 p.m., followed by a dance in the service club. A formal buffet supper and party to which government girls have been invited will begin at 9 p.m. at Bolling Field.
Police injected a somber note into all the plans for revelry by warning that those convicted of driving while drunk on New Year’s Eve would be prosecuted to the hilt, and would face loss of their driver’s permits.
Traffic Director George E. Keneipp said he did not “want to hang crepe on celebrations, but every precaution must be taken to discourage motorists from driving after drinking.”
“Records show,” he said, “that a driver’s chance of being in an accident are 55 times greater when he is under the influence of liquor. If you drink, don’t drive.”
Extra police to watch
Fifty extra traffic policemen will be on duty to check drinking places, to see that those under the influence of liquor do not drive their automobiles, Police Traffic Inspector Arthur E. Miller said.
“They also will have orders to pick up drunken pedestrians to prevent them from being hit by cars,” he said.
Traffic signals throughout the city will remain in operation all night as a safety measure, police said.
Not all plans were for revelry. Numerous church services are planned for tonight. Some churches had parties scheduled to precede the year-end services.
The Ellen Spencer Mussey Tent No. 1 of the Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War will hold a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. New Year’s Day at their headquarters, 2015 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.
Two YMCA units will hold open house New Year’s Day. An eight-hour program starting at 2:30 p.m. will be held at the Central Branch. 1736 G Street N.W., including a sports exhibition, a tea dance and concert. The Boys’ Branch, 1732 G Street N.W., will hold a reception for parents at 4 p.m.
New York City night clubs were charging – without liquor – from $5 to $40 per person for New Year Eve parties and had all the takers they could handle, the Associated Press reported today.
The New York police department assigned 1,684 men to handle the tens of thousands of revelers expected in Times Square.
Truman to see 1946 out aboard his yacht with buffet for staff
President Truman will see the old year out aboard the presidential yacht Williamsburg tonight, when he will be host to members of his staff at an 8 o’clock buffet supper.
This was the same pattern followed by the president last year to observe the passing of 1945.
Press Secretary Charles G. Ross said that the president had no plans for tomorrow and that he did not know whether he would go to church.