"Law enforcement officials knew the speakeasies were there, and sometimes they raided them and sometimes they didn’t," said Ellen Langill, one of four panel members who spoke Saturday as part of Waukesha’s BIG READ, focused this year on the Roaring 20s novel "The Great Gatsby."

"There were rumors that law enforcement could be paid $1,000 to keep one eye shut and $2,000 to close both eyes."

Langill, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, joined Jonathan Kasparek, of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, and Carroll University professors Charles Byler and Abigail Markwyn discussed the time period in which the book F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel and character Jay Gatsby portrayed.

Langill said the student handbook for Waukesha’s then Carroll College, dated 1922, contained the following blunt statement, indicative of the era: "We do not condone flappers, liquor or weekday socializing."

She also noted that students at the college were not allowed to ride in cars and the Waukesha school board made a ruling in the 1920s that jazz music was not to be played by school bands or orchestras.

"I guess they thought it would be conducive to leading the students to go to speakeasies after school," Langill said of the ban on jazz.

Byler said people living in the 20s felt as if "the moral guideposts were crumbling around them and that hedonism was taking over."

"They feared they were losing the country they knew. The pace of change had accelerated and it was associated with what some saw as a moral decline that came with urban living," he said.

In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan expanded dramatically, as a reaction by some people to keep traditional values, Byler said.

"There were 15,000 active members of the Ku Klux Klan in Wisconsin at that time," he said.

Markwyn said there are "no admirable women" in "The Great Gatsby," being read throughout the community as part of a federally-backed event to encourage literacy.

"Although there are significant female characters in the book, they are shallow, feather-brained and interested only in men and liquor," she said. "This was the era of the new woman. There was a working class of young women who got jobs as clerks and secretaries. In 1920, women were given the vote nationwide. I think the changing gender norms brought some anxiety in society.

Kasparek said classic novel used the automobile to express the conflict of modernity, which came as a mixed blessing for Waukesha, then a hot spot of spas and luxury hotels that largely attracted visitors by train.

"The automobile ended Waukesha’s golden age," he said, citing travelers’ ability to go father with greater ease.

A few of that era’s automobiles were on display Saturday afternoon in downtown Waukesha as the Art Crawl took on a Gatsby theme in honor of the BIG READ, which is a community-wide, month-long effort to promote literacy.

Looking like it was just driven off the showroom floor, a 1928 Ford Model A owned by Warren and Ray Seegers of Waukesha glistened, from its shiny silver bumper, dark green body to its black top.

"My dad bought the car in 1970 but it sat in a shed until 2000, when we started work on restoring it," said Ray Seegers. "It took us four or five years, but we made it look like it just came from the factory."

Ray Seegers said the car boasts a four-cylinder engine and an electric start, though it does come with a crank to hand start it.

"The only power steering is what you apply yourself to the steering wheel," he said with a laugh.

The hottest spot in the downtown was outside of Art Links 333, which was selling hand-made pottery bowls that could then be filled with soup or ice cream.

"This is our fourth year and it’s become a very popular event," said Patty Chones of Art Links 333. "New this year are our celebrity bowls. We had people like Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas and Waukesha School District Superintendent Todd Gray make bowls to sell."

Proceeds from the bowl sales benefitted Art Links 333, which serves adults with disabilities and to support scholarships in Waukesha.