Many a citizen wondered what was happening to Jimmy Byrnes's midnight curfew. Thousands guessed that the 12 o'clock closing order, already sidetracked in New York by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, would soon be completely derailed. But the mayor's attempt to keep Manhattan bars and night clubs open until 1 a.m. had the opposite effect.
President Roosevelt quickly took a stand—he wanted the curfew observed everywhere. And though Jimmy Byrnes had all but admitted that the Government had no way of enforcing his order, the War Department put teeth in it by proclaiming a midnight curfew for soldiers.
Military police moved into Broadway bars,...
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