Partners, Refreshments, And Dinner Table Amusement

( Originally Published 1922 )

To Find Partners. Millinery.

All the men line up for marching. The line of march leads through the ladies' cloak room, where each man is to take the hat nearest him, put it on, and continue in the march which leads back to the main room. There the men parade up and down the room until each hat and its "occupant" is claimed by some lady.

String Partners. (Small Group.)

A large paper heart is suspended in a doorway. A hole has been pierced in it, large enough to hold half as many strings as there are people present. These strings have been put through the hole just as evenly as possible. When the time for choosing partners has arrived, every man takes hold of a string on one side and every girl takes one on the other. At the signal from the leader they pull down, tearing the heart and straightening out their strings without letting go, to find out who has the other end. That "other end" is of course one's partner,

Taking a Chance!

The men are blindfolded while the girls all line up in a row. The men are led up one by one to the row of girls and are asked to go down the row, shaking hands with each girl in turn until they come to the girl they want for a partner. They are warned that they cannot go to the end of the row and then come back for another chance, but that if they have not chosen by the time they come to the last girl, this last one will be their partner. Girls are not allowed to indicate in any way who they are. Any girl who does is put at the end of the line.

Proposals. (Small Group.)

Two widths of wrapping paper are pasted together so that they form a curtain. The ladies stand behind this with their left hands stuck through the paper. All means of identification, such as rings, have been removed. The men have been provided with ten cent store rings, no two alike, and as they pass down the line, reviewing the hands, they put the ring on the finger of the lady of their choice. When all the ladies have been presented with rings, the curtain is dropped and the men claim their rings and their partners.

Professions. (Small Group.)

The men have been given cards on which are written the professions each one of them is to pantomime. The ladies have been given cards on which corresponding professions are named, and as soon as each lady recognizes the profession being pantomimed as the one corresponding with hers, she claims her partner.

Sometimes, however, she makes a mistake. She thinks a man is pantomiming the dentist's profession, whereas in reality he is a piano tuner !

The following professions may be used to good dramatic advantage :

1. Piano tuner. 6. Vocal Teacher.

2. Dentist. 7. Artist.

3. Surgeon. 8. Judge.

4. Teacher. 9. Riding Master.

5. Hairdresser. 10. Actor.

Rhyming Partners.

Familiar rhymes are cut in two, one side being placed on a plate for the men and the other side on a plate for the ladies. The two plates are passed to the men and ladies respectively, and it is the business of each man to find the lady who has the other half of his rhyme.

When they have all found their partners, before they can have any refreshments, if this is refreshment time, each couple in turn must stand before the others and glibly recite the nursery rhyme found on their cards.

Superlatives. (Small Group.)

In this case it is the girls who must find partners. They are given cards on which are written brief, two word descriptions of the men who will act as their partners. The descriptions may be similar to those following :

1. Biggest foot. 6. Broadest shoulders.

2. Nicest looking. 7. Sweetest disposition.

3. Smallest hand. 8. Best dancer.

4. Shiningest" eyes. 9. Most extravagant.

5. Curliest hair. 10. Pearliest teeth.

The girls are given their cards, are asked to say nothing about what is on them but to silently look at the men for two full minutes and then to quietly go and claim their partners. In case of any dispute, the leader settles the argument. After all the men have been claimed each girl must give her reason, based on the description on her card, for choosing the partner she did.

The Hunt.

This may make a real game for a group of guests if the place in which they are being entertained is large enough to afford a great many hiding places. Each guest is given a card and he is to follow directions explicitly, for each card will direct him to another card, and so forth, the goal being one's partner. All cards have been carefully worked out beforehand, to be sure there are no slip-ups, or duplications.

We might follow Miss Gail as she follows directions on her cards.

Her first card reads, "Go look on the third shelf of the music cabinet." There she finds another card which bids her go up to the front bedroom and look under the red pin-cushion. The card there asks her to look under the gas stove in the kitchen for further instructions. Next she is to look under the foreleg of the wash machine in the laundry, and there she finds a card which tells her that she will find her partner in the living room on the couch.

He, in the meantime, has had just as varied a journey, and his last instructions were to look on the couch in the living room for a charming partner.

When the weather permits, it adds a great deal to put part of these different trips out-of-doors.

The Matrimonial Bureau. (Small Group.)

Early in the evening every guest is given a piece of paper and a pencil, and is asked to write out his or her ideal of a perfect husband or wife. Names are signed on the backs of these descriptions, and the papers are collected. Later in the evening, just before refreshments, the papers written up by the ladies are given out to the men, and vice versa. Then some man designated by the hostess reads aloud the description handed him and says in addition, "Marion Davis wrote this. This is her idea of a perfect husband; which of us is he?" and by popular vote the men pick out the perfect partner for Marion Davis.

She has her turn too, however. She reads the idea given her, announces who wrote it, and then asks the ladies to help her find the perfect partner for this deluded man. They do so joyfully

Thus it goes around the entire group. Each one reads his description, tells who wrote it, and the group picks out the ideal partner for each one. Some of them have difficulty in recognizing themselves.

Unless otherwise designated, all these events may be used for either large or small groups. Refreshments.

Refreshments should be served when the evening is just about two-thirds over. Every social committee wants guests to go home feeling that the evening has been a tremendous success from start to finish. The committee takes a chance as to their going home with that feeling when refreshments are the last thing on the program. Some of them finish before others, and finally a group decides that it is time to go home and they start out. Others follow them, and eventually they all drift out, but with a more or less vague and indefinite feeling of being let down at the end of a mighty fine evening.

It has proved to be far more effective to carry the fun right through refreshment time, then have a few more games, finally closing your evening with a game that brings in everyone, the kind of game that makes one have a new respect for one's capacity for laughing. Let that game end in "Good Night Ladies," and your guests go home refreshed and relaxed and absolutely convinced that they never had a better time in their lives.

However, there is a pause sometimes, during refreshments, which, instead of promoting sociability, pro-motes a letting down of interest. It comes when some of them have finished and others have just begun their refreshments. That is a splendid time to put on informal singing. It isn't at all necessary to get people out of their seats to sit in straight rows in front of the piano. Those who have finished may come up to the piano. Popular songs and old songs are always very effective, and a few foolish ones never fail to make the slower eaters hurry up and join the crowd. For ex-ample, let them sing "Smiles." Then ask them to sing it omitting the word "smile." In its place they are to smile sweetly at their neighbors. It is so easy to smile sweetly when one is convulsed with laughter !

Another good impromptu song is "John Brown's Baby Had a Cold Upon Its Chest." It is sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body." The first line is repeated twice. The fourth line is, "And they rubbed it with camphorated oil. At first it is sung in perfectly proper fashion, but the second time the word "baby" is omitted and an imaginary baby is rocked. The third verse omits both "baby" and "cold," a sneeze taking the place of the cold. In the next verse the same two words are omitted, and in addition "chest" is left out and pantomimed by a hearty slap on one's chest. Next omit "rubbed," rubbing one's chest instead, and lastly omit "camphorated oil," pinching one's nose as decidedly indicative of one's feelings toward the oil.

If the song is not allowed to drag, the last verse usually leaves your guests helpless, for although there is almost no singing left to be done, the violent panto-miming is enough to reduce them all to tears !

If a program of entertainment features has been planned this same "in between" time has proved to be a far better time for it than the first half hour which is usually given it. If the program is made up of several numbers, ask the men to get up and change partners between numbers. A five cent fine is imposed on any man sitting with the same partner for two suecessive numbers.

Stunts, too, always fit in well at this time, both impromptu stunts and three or four which have needed a little preparation.

After the refreshment hour is over it is always a good plan to get all guests on their feet in some big group game, not alone for the digestive value of such an action, but for the social value as well.

The following stunts are typical of the kind of stunt which is particularly good for that "in-between time" directly after refreshments.

Head Work.

A quartette is announced, made up of people who really can sing, and whose success is laid at the door of the director who has devised a new and highly successful method of getting the best out of one's voice. He stands back of the quartette, which is seated facing the audience. When they are ready he starts the music by pushing down the head of the one who sings first, and thereafter keeps on the jump, pushing down the heads of the music-makers. When all four sing together he has a lively time, but by using both his elbows and his hands he manages to push down all four heads at once.

Usually they are heartily applauded, both for their nonsense and for their really good music. Even if they are not, however, they bow and respond with an encore. This time something goes wrong with the mechanism, and though they sing something old and familiar like Home Sweet Home, when a head is pushed down for a certain necessary note, a certain other note comes forth instead, and what is worse, a note gets loose, and doesn't wait for-the push on the head that insures harmony. It all ends in one final blare of awful discord, and the master drives them out in despair.

The Pygmy Choir.

Another stunt that is both delightful to listen to and highly interesting to watch is that of the pygmy choir. When the curtain of the stage is drawn a large sheet of paper is seen, with eight heads shown through holes cut in the paper, and eight pairs of long legs charcaaled on the paper below the dresses, and eight artistic char-coaled hats on the paper above the heads. The holes must be large enough to plainly show the faces of the singers, who are men.. The effect is grotesque, to say the Ieast eight masculine faces attached to eight frivolous little bodies dressed in crępe paper.

There is nothing frivolous about their music, how-ever, until just at the last of the encore, when one man loses his dress, which had not been pasted on, but which he held on by means of a pin. His distress, which is loud and lamenting, breaks up the choir.

Bedlam.

One person comes out and sings a well-known song in English. It is heartily applauded, but instead of an encore someone else comes out and sings the same song in French; then it is sung in Spanish; in Swedish; Italian ; Dutch ; and Norwegian. Finally, all of them come out and sing the song together, each in his own language, and each trying to outdo the other in being heard. It is always appreciated by an audience, this melody !

A Chinese Reading.

Some well-known local person is announced as about to give a reading, with no hint in the announcement of any foolishness. The reading is extraordinary, only in that it is given backwards !

It really is not difficult to memorize a piece back wards, if one will write it out that way before attempting to memorize it. The difficult part comes in listening to it !

Note.—For further stunts see Helen Ferris' "Producing Amateur Entertainments." Dutton & Co., N. Y. Dinner Table Amusement.

There are so many hostesses at dinner parties, to whom the preparation of the dinner and its serving are not the awful bugbear. That honor goes rather to the painful silences that spoil the best dinner ever served. There is only one thing more painful. That is a very evident attempt to make conversation, and to force a social atmosphere.

The following "Dinner Table Amusement" has been given every conceivable test as to real ice-breaking capability. It has been found, too, that much of it can be used to just as good advantage at church and school and club and community suppers, as at smaller affairs in the home. Where there are several tables or very long tables it is a good plan to have one person at every table or every section of a long table, who is responsible for putting on the various stunts.

All of these stunts are included in other chapters of this book. The following are examples:

1. Crystal gazing. This trick is infallible. It has never yet failed to gain the most helpless laughter of the evening. Instead of having the victim kneel, how-ever, when this is done at the table, ask him to put his hands on the table, with fingers spread out wide. A good time to bring this in is just after dessert has been served, particularly if that dessert is tempting. Your victim is utterly helpless, and it is not an unheard of thing for another guest to calmly eat the delicious apple pie that stands idle.

Another good time to do it is just after dinner is over, and the other guests depart, leaving Mr. Unfortunate to sit alone for a moment to reflect on his sins.

2. Virtues. This may be put on between courses, but partners are not changed.

3. Mimic. Vocal gymnastics are possible, but because guests are seated, no "funny steps" are used. The following may be used just as they are :

1. Paralysis.

2. Help !

3. Be Definite.

4. Prohibited Words.

5. Dressing up.

6. Hear ! hear !

7. Abbreviations.

8. And I.

9. Elastic Spelling.

10. Owa Tagoo Siam.

11. Under the table.

12. Willie.

13. Prison guard.

14. Hee haw !

15. Impossible.

16. Palmistry.

17. Mr. Bumps.

18. Wrong.

19. Self praise.

20. "T."

21. Eny.

22. Unbreakable match.

23. Rubber !

24. Elastic ring.

Conversation.

After the ice has been broken one feels safe in guiding the conversation along certain lines between partners, confident that conversation will not seem forced. The following topics are not conducive to forced conversation :

1. My most thrilling adventure.

2. The most fun I ever had.

3. The "scaredest" I've ever been.

4. The biggest fish story I know.

5. The oldest joke I know.