Party Perfect

"Party Perfect" is a 1959 Co-Ed Magazine book based on their popular monthly feature of the same name. The goal of "Party Perfect" is to teach your average teenage girl to be the "hostess with the mostest."

I love this book. Not only does it have groovy graphics and disgusting recipes for Peanut Butter Dipsies (peanut butter, eggs, relish and bacon), Hot Buttered Soup (tomato soup, cinnamon and cloves) and Bouillon on the Rocks (no explanation needed) but it also has an author with one of the more unfortunate names in publishing history...Gay Head. I kid you not. The author's name is Gay Head. Is there anything funnier than Gay Head teaching kids how to have fun in the rumpus room? (I am soooooooooo immature!)



It's tough to choose my favorite party idea, but it might just be the United Nations Get-Together.

Want to try a party with an international flavor? Make it a United Nations party, so you can borrow foods, decorations, costumes, and entertainment from the whole world. The theme is one of the purposes of the U.N. itself-- to establish friendly relations with other peoples through understanding.

That's right kids, invite all of your white friends over and serve them French bread and Italian spaghetti in order to establish friendly relations with other peoples. Of course, you could just invite over your black and hispanic friends but, wait, you don't have any black and hispanic friends. It is 1959, after all.

I do have to admire any book that can get a teenage boy to show up for a party wearing a suit. These days you can't even get a grown man to wear a tie to a funeral.

Although, the party ideas seem squaresville by today's standards, I sort of long for the innocence of days past. One of the more depressing hours on television is MTV's My Super Sweet 16 -- which says a lot considering it is a half-hour show. On a recent episode, our hostess with the mostest made her entrance wearing a red bustier, singing "Lady Marmalade." I don't think anywhere in "Party Perfect" did Gay Head recommend kicking off the festivities by acting like a whore.

(Where are the mothers? I'm reminded of the scene in "Pretty Baby" where Susan Sarandon allows Brooke Shields to be paraded around on a silver platter in the hopes of attracting a high bidder.)

Perhaps Gay Head had the right idea. Put on a fancy party dress, whip up a batch of Deviled Ham Missles and dance to the latest hit record. Only this time around, don't be afraid (and I'm saying this in a hushed tone) to invite over some "brown people."



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