The Blue Eagle

When we were kids in Sauk Rapids, Mn in the 1960s, there was a bar downtown called the Blue Eagle.  It was among the "near ocassions of sin" that the nuns warned us about--

Of course, I couldn't find a picture of the building, but searching "Blue Eagle" found articles about FDRs New Deal and the Blue Eagle Pledge, 1933 to 1935.  Did the two have anything to do with each other?

My sister Kath thinks she remembers hearing that the bar was originally a speakeasy, during Prohibition...but it could also have been a "blind pig":

The term "blind pig" originated in the United States in the 19th century; it was applied to lower class establishments that sold alcoholic beverages illegally. The operator of an establishment (such as a saloon or bar) would charge customers to see an attraction (such as an animal) and then serve a “complimentary” alcoholic beverage, thus circumventing the law.   

 The difference between a speakeasy and a blind pig was that a speakeasy was usually a higher-class establishment that offered food, music, live entertainment, or even all three.  But a blind pig was usually a low-class dive where only beer and liquor were offered. --Wikipedia

The Blue Eagle in Sauk Rapids was an ordinary bar, in a fairly ramshakle brick building, with beer signs in its windows and almost nothing remarkable about it. We'll get back to that, but first--what WAS the Blue Eagle Pledge?  We didn't find a copy of the actual pledge, but Larry found this parody in the Sauk Centre Herald in August, 1933.
The idea was to enlist business people in a fairness pledge, and use social approbation to make it work.

  The rest of this headline article (below) can be found here.

So, it's possible that the Blue Eagle Bar was named with tongue-in-cheek.  Prohibition ended in 1933--did the owner decide to use the new program for  what he could--a play on the idea that "we do our part"?  We don't know...lol

 But, back to why we were really even aware of the Blue Eagle as school kids walking home:  Just inside the north door of the place was the towns BEST display of penny-candy, and a fairly patient bartender who was usually willing to bag-up our carefully considered choices.  "Ok, two of those....and two of those....no, make that one...and then three of THOSE...."   It did smell like beer in the "near occasion", but we were innocently after 25 cents worth of candy.

YAY!  Photo found in July 2013 on St Cloud, Remembered, a Facebook blog.