# Help me throw a 60s cocktail party! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2004, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120 "2004-08-10T00:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/21 "2004-08-10T10:42:49Z")
> [@lambchops](#): > > Took a look at the “Regrettable Food” cookbooks etc, not quite what I was looking for. I’d prefer food that’s edible. [Rumaki](http://cocktails.about.com/library/recipes/blrumaki.htm) was mandated, by law apparently, to be served at _every_ late '60s party. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/22 "2004-08-10T10:45:59Z")
Actually, [this recipe](http://www.greatpartyrecipes.com/rumakirecipe.html) is much closer to the rumaki I remember…I pasted the wrong one in above. Also, if the idea of chicken livers really makes you gag, you _can_ substitute shrimp. But purists look upon this as cheating. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/23 "2004-08-10T11:08:40Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > [Cocktail hats](http://www.finofino.com/CocktailHats.html). 🙂 Yes, this kind of thing. I, uh, had something of an unfortunate hat-making fetish and thus could generally supply friends. On other occasions, we tried dominoes (little eye masks) made out of black cardboard and lots of glitter, those were kind of fun too. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/24 "2004-08-10T11:49:54Z")
If you want another frame of (admittedly absurd) reference, run out and rent **Breakfast At Tiffanys**. The party scene in that is the ultimate cheesy 60s party. I assume you’re not going for the kind of 60s party I went to as a nubile hippie chick - that was a whole different beast, full of questionable baked goods, wine in the bongs only, lots of Indian bedspreads and macrame owls hung from the walls, Hendrix, Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles on the playlist, and a heavy sweet-smellling fod of smoke lingering in the air. Ours were a lot more fun, in my opinion. Man, I miss 16… ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/25 "2004-08-10T11:59:13Z")
For food, you gotta have a fondue pot. Seems like everyone that got married in the 60s got one for a present. For decor, lava lamps and strobe lights. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/26 "2004-08-10T23:41:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > For decor, lava lamps and strobe lights. You’ll have to make up your mind whether you’re having an early '60s party (1960-1966), or a late '60s party (1967-1969\*), i.e., establishment or anti-establishment. Lava lamps and strobe lights would be out of place in an early '60s party. **singular1** , what in the world do you mean by the party scene in that darling movie _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ was “cheesy”? I ask as the grandson of a cheesemaker. - The 1960s really ended in 1973 or 1974. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/27 "2004-08-11T00:03:02Z")
_Square Meals_ by Jane and Michael Stern is a fun cookbook with mostly edible recipes from the 1930s through the 1960s. They have a great “Cuisine of Suburbia” section with recipes that seem like they’d be helpful for your particular circumstance. I think that you absolutely _must_ make little penguins out of olives and hardboiled eggs. The party sounds like a blast. Have fun! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/28 "2004-08-11T06:18:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I think that you absolutely must make little penguins out of olives and hardboiled eggs. Oh, please do provide a link. I suddenly can’t see my life as meaningful unless I make some of these immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/29 "2004-08-11T06:40:40Z")
**Walloon** , definitely early 60s. Kitschy, not hippy. Bow-ties, not tie-dye. Cocktails, not bucket bongs. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/30 "2004-08-11T07:08:00Z")
> [@lambchops](#): > > **Walloon** , definitely early 60s. Kitschy, not hippy. Bow-ties, not tie-dye. Cocktails, not bucket bongs. No, no! Do an early 60s/late 60s fusion party! LSD-laced Manhattans, macrobiotic canapes . . . ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/31 "2004-08-11T15:41:35Z")
> [@](#): > > No, no! Do an early 60s/late 60s fusion party! LSD-laced Manhattans, macrobiotic canapes . . . “Woah, man, there’s, like, God in the fondue…” ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/32 "2004-08-11T16:00:32Z")
Thrift stores are your friend in this venture. These days they are usually absolutely overloaded with all manner of 60’s cocktail party (ice buckets, fondue pots, Ronson stuff, cocktail shakers, bar sets etc. etc. etc. and of course etc. crap for pennies in the dollar. Apparently now is the time that grannies (today) who were entertaining in the 60’s have decided that their 60’s cocktail crap is not of any use anymore and are clearing it out of the cupboards . ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/33 "2004-08-11T16:07:11Z")
Your local library probably has a copy of _Take Five Live_ by Dave Brubeck. If you ask, I’ll bet they can even find it on vinyl (assuming you have something that plays vinyl). Then there’s _Hello, Dolly_ by Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, and Mingus, _Live at Birdland_. These make great background music for all the sparkling, ring-a-ding-ding conversations you’ll be having. Now if you could get your hands on a Hi-Fi… ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/34 "2004-08-11T16:17:01Z")
And don’t forget that all the men should look like Darren Stevens or Larry Tate from _Bewitched_ except the one hipster who is wearing the plaid dinner jacket. Like [this.](http://www.rcenter.org/Images/PerformingArts/plaids.jpg) The movie “Brigadoon” while mostly awful has a bar-scene at the end which shows the clothes and look of that era quite well. Ahhh… my favorite fantasy, to be an ad-man in 1963 New York. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/35 "2004-08-11T16:54:17Z")
No ‘60s cocktail party would be complete without Jack Jones and Andy Williams on the phonograph. Jones’ “Wives and Lovers” is just dripping with the sound of the 60s cocktail party. Also, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Don’t forget to rat your hair and learn the bosa nova. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/36 "2004-08-11T17:46:25Z")
Plus… you must try this new party snack I discovered! It’s all the rage in Soho, it’s sour cream, french onion and chive chip-dip! It’s so new and exciting! Yet so simple. Shhh… don’t tell anyone the recipe. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/37 "2004-08-11T18:09:20Z")
And to wind up the evening, play the Key Game (as seen in _The Ice Storm_.) I’m almost positive my parents did that once or twice whilst I was a young 'un. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/38 "2004-08-11T18:23:26Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > **singular1** , what in the world do you mean by the party scene in that darling movie _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ was “cheesy”? I ask as the grandson of a cheesemaker. > > - The 1960s really ended in 1973 or 1974. Not cheesy in the selection of canapes, but cheesy in that every 60’s cocktail party stereotype is well represented and overdone. The hair, the clothes, the music, the wild hijinx going on. It’s the brightly-lit booze-soaked party that only existed in Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/39 "2004-08-11T18:27:10Z")
> [@The Scrivener](#): > > If you can find it, you could even mix in a bit from a 60’s comedy album… there’s a bawdy, blonde middle-aged female comedienne from that period who is now all but forgotten (and sure enough, I can’t remember her name now; her shtick was her very dated sex jokes and timely references to things like the Mercury Space Program) who would be a most interesting discovery for your party guests. Do you mean [Rusty Warren](http://www.rustywarren.com/)? She’s not dated, but she’d fit right in at such a party. Redd Foxx is also another comedian who put out party records in the 1950s and 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120/40 "2004-08-11T18:32:40Z")
Musically, you need some Burt Bacharach sung by Dionne Warwick, Nina Simone’s Let It All Out and Pastel Blues, and for space age lounge music that’s authentic and not just a retread get some Esquivel! and Martin Denny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-throw-a-60s-cocktail-party/259120.md?page=3)