How to Throw a 1920s Party

Recreate the heyday of American party life by welcoming back the 1920s with a party.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Jazz records
• Record player
• Dance floor
• Gin
• Fellows in suits
• Girls in loose dresses (boas optional)

1. Get a group of friends and find a suitable venue. A suitable place is one where drinking, spilling, falling, shouting, dancing and other loud and obnoxious behaviors are not just allowed but encouraged.

2. Set up a stereo, if your local live swing band is booked, and scour record stores. Anything Basie or Ellington, Hines or Armstrong, Whiteman or Beiderbecke is a staple; there are scores of others just as good if not better to extend the playlist. For it to be a genuine 1920s party, good big-band or swing jazz music is essential.

3. Round up the gents in fine suits and all the pretty girls you can find. Pass round the gin, bathtub optional.

4. Wax the dance floor and put on your shoes. If you're not sweating trying to do the Charleston, you lose.

5. If you've been dancing/drinking right, your party will either fizzle out as folks collapse from exhaustion and intoxication, or get very weird on the nostalgic sexual vibes and the gin. Good luck.

Tips & Warnings

• Read up on the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and especially Evelyn Waugh to get more ideas (the movie "Bright Young Things," based on Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies," might be particularly helpful, though, like most 1920s-nostalgic films, is slightly cheesy).