PARTNERS, REFRESHMENTS, AND DINNER TABLE AMUSEMENT
_To Find Partners._
Millinery.
All the men line up for marching. The line of march leads through the
ladies’ cloakroom, 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.
2. Dentist.
3. Surgeon.
4. Teacher.
5. Hairdresser.
6. Vocal Teacher.
7. Artist.
8. Judge.
9. Riding Master.
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.
2. Nicest looking.
3. Smallest hand.
4. “Shiningest” eyes.
5. Curliest hair.
6. Broadest shoulders.
7. Sweetest disposition.
8. Best dancer.
9. Most extravagant.
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.
NOTE.--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, promotes 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 example, 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 pantomiming 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 successive 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 charcoaled on the paper below the dresses, and eight artistic
charcoaled 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 least--eight masculine faces attached
to eight frivolous little bodies dressed in crêpe paper.
There is nothing frivolous about their music, however, 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 backwards, 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, however, 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. 13. Prison guard.
2. Help! 14. Hee haw!
3. Be Definite. 15. Impossible.
4. Prohibited Words. 16. Palmistry.
5. Dressing up. 17. Mr. Bumps.
6. Hear! hear! 18. Wrong.
7. Abbreviations. 19. Self praise.
8. And I. 20. “T.”
9. Elastic Spelling. 21. Eny.
10. Owa Tagoo Siam. 22. Unbreakable match.
11. Under the table. 23. Rubber!
12. Willie. 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.
INDEX
A
Abbreviations, 82
Air, 67
All Fours, 125
Altruism, 31
Amateur Vaudeville, 43
And I, 33
Ankle Tag, 123
Automobile, 37
B
Babycarriage Contest, The, 105
Backward Tag, 124
Backward Tug of War, 118
Bag Handshake, 27
Ball Game, The, 73
Balloons, 66
Band, The, 85
Bang!, 107
Beans, 74
Be Definite, 39
Bedlam, 135
Blindfolded Race, The, 73
Boast!, 42
Bottle Race, The, 112
C
Capable Women, 69
Changeable Grand March, The, 47
Chinese Reading, A, 135
Chinese Spell-Down, A, 56
Circle Handshake, 28
Circle Tag, 126
Circus, The, 71
Conversation, 137
Count, The, 72
Couple Baseball, 114
Cradle Roll, 113
Cripple Tag, 122
Cruelty, 31
Crystal Gazing, 79
Cut It, 73
D
Dodge, 56
Dressing Up, 28
Duck on the Rock, 116
E
Eating Under Difficulties, 71
Eggshell Race, 72
Elastic Ring, The, 90
Elastic Spelling, 35
Elusive Goal, The, 69
Employment Bureau, 37
Eny, 95
Excuse Me!, 34
Extry!, 57
F
Family Hide and Go Seek, 118
Far, Far Away, 72
Feathers, 70
Flattery, 43
Follow the Leader, 119
Forehead Tag, 125
Friendliness, 55
Fruit Bearers, 72
G
Gathering of the Nuts, The, 83
Gossip, 19
Greased Pole and Pig, The, 107
H
Harmonious Hunt, The, 49
Head-Work, 133
Hear! Hear!, 60
Hee Haw!, 88
Help!, 39
Helpless Eating, 67
Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Thy Head, 75
Hippity-Hop, 111
Hippity-Hop Potato Race, 64
Holidays, 26
Hop Tag, 126
Horse Races, The, 105
Horse Tag, 125
Housewives Race, 110
Human Adjectives, 40
Human Wheelbarrow, The, 109
Hunt, The, 130
Hunting Ground, The, 58
Hypnotism, 93
I
I Hypnotise You!, 99
Impossible, 83
Impromptu Artists, 33
Initials, 45
Inverted Spell-Down, The, 51
Invitations, 34
It Pays to Advertise, 20
K
Kamerad, 125
Kiddy Kar Race, 63
Kindergartners, 113
L
Lamplighter, The, 70
Laughter!, 59
Leap Frog, 109
Lemon!, 67
Leterfly, 92
Little Theater, The, 27
Limited Conversation, 23
Lobster Race, 111
Lost Sheep, The, 83
M
Magic Numbers, 103
Magic Photography, 100
Magic Writing, 87
Masculine Vanity Race, 112
Matrimonial Bureau, The, 130
Millinery, 127
Mimic, 54
Mixup, A, 43
Mr. Bumps, 97
Musical Ruth and Jacob, 53
My Virtues!, 16
N
New Era, The, 106
Niagara Falls, 113
No Fair!, 97
Noise, 31
Nose Power, 67
O
Obstacle Race, 110
Of What Are Matches Made?, 79
One-Legged Pom Pom Pull Away, 119
Ouch!, 122
Out!, 115
Owa Tagoo Siam!, 81
P
Pain, The, 102
Palmistry, 78
Paralysis, 80
Parlor Slapjack, 41
Partnership Relay, 65
Penalty, The, 110
Picnic Blues, The, 108
Picnic Stagecoach, 121
Poison Ball, 120
Prison Guard, The, 87
Professions, 128
Progressive Nonsense, 44
Prohibited Words, 17
Proposals, 128
Pygmy Choir, The, 134
Q
Quizz, The, 59
R
Rabbit, 91
Rainy Day, The, 73
Red, White and Blue, 103
Reducer, The, 64
Rhyming Partners, 129
Rollers, The, 106
Rooster Fight, The, 120
Rubber, 91
S
Sack Race, The, 106
Salaam, 93
Scramble, 61
Second Childhood, 69
Self Praise, 96
Shake Hands!, 14
Shun the Circle, 54
Sing Tag, 122
Smile, 32
Southpaws, 15
Spots, 12
Squatters’ Race, The, 107
Stepping Stones, 66
Sticks, The, 106
Street and Alley, 52
String Partners, 127
Stunts, 46
Subway, The, 108
Superlatives, 129
T
“T”, 95
Tail Tag, 124
Taking a Chance!, 127
Target, The, 120
Teapot, 102
Three in One, 122
Torches, The, 74
Toyshop, The, 32
Trades, 45
Transitions, 45
Treasure Hunt Grand March, The, 49
Triple Dodge Ball, 117
Twentieth Century Blind Man’s Bluff, 36
Two Deep, 119
Two in One Race, 109
U
Unbreakable Match, The, 91
Under the Table, 82
V
Variety Store, The, 68
W
Water Bearers, The, 107
Wheelbarrow Race, 114
Whistle, 86
Whoops!, 71
Willie!, 89
Wonderful Vision, 89
Wrong!, 77
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.