CLAY SHWAB: MANNY SHWAB & THE GEORGE DICKLE COMPANY
This episode of Big Blend Radio’s EAT, DRINK & BE MERRY Show features Clay Shwab, who discusses his biography about his great-grandfather, “Manny Shwab and the George Dickel Company: Whisky, Power and Politics During Nashville’s Gilded Ag. ” Watch here in the YouTube player or download the episode on Podbean.
There was once a Tennessee whiskey that dwarfed Jack Daniel’s, and a powerful man was behind it: V.E. “Manny” Shwab. Until now, virtually nothing has been written about either. Their story is one of a Jewish Alsatian immigrant’s dream of finding community and prosperity in the New World and his son who rose to dominate Tennessee politics, whiskey, and finance for decades; of smuggling during the Civil War; of the raging, sometimes fatal, battle against Prohibition; and of the wild side of rapidly growing Nashville during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Manny” Shwab was known as the “owner” of Tennessee politics, and–because of his George Dickel company, saloons, and Cascade Whisky–the “debaucherer of more young men than anyone else in the state.” He was also one of Tennessee’s richest and most powerful men for four decades. This is the first full-length biography of V. E. Shwab, written by his great-grandson, and the first complete history of the George Dickel company.
More at https://clayshwab.com/
