Capone's Whiskey Returns to Chicago

This Templeton, Iowa concoction was, rather famously, a certain gangster's favorite Prohibition era libation. So the upcoming March 22 screening in Chicago of Capone's Whiskey: The Story of Templeton Rye is arguably as pure as the drink itself.

It's the Windy City debut for the 75-minute documentary, which world premiered last December and has been screening since at various Iowa locations. There was also a separate half-hour short, Templeton Rye: Iowa's Good Stuff, aired last year on Iowa public television in conjunction with the Ken Burns series Prohibition.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Templeton Rye is that it continued to be exclusively bootlegged until just a few years ago. It was only in 2006 that the whiskey finally also became legally available, both in Carroll County and elsewhere.

 

Next week's screening at Chicago's Mayne Stage will be followed by a reception featuring, but of course, shots of Templeton Rye. Filmmaker Kristian Day made the movie for $21,000 and cut it down from roughly 38 hours of raw footage.

[Capone's Whiskey: The Story of Templeton Rye]