1920’s Radio Party Etiquette

This week has witnessed a series of radio parties with a pretty well systematized etiquette. The convention radio party of 1924 goes something like this: In the coolest of sports attire, you arrive and are ushered into a room, “all done up” in its summer-time toggery of cool looking linens or gay chintzes. The blinds are drawn just so; inside, a deliciously shadowy coolness; outside a blistering sun. 

Washington’s Society Opens ‘Radio Season’

Stay-At-Homes Listened in On Democratic Convention 

‘At Smartest Parties’

Washington, June 28.— Nowadays the convention “radio party” is the thing. Coincidentally with the start-off of the Republican session at Cleveland, Washington stay-at-homes, from the White House right down the line of officials, “foreign and domestic,” began sitting in on the great quadrennial political performances. This week has witnessed a series of radio parties with a pretty well systematized etiquette. 

The convention radio party of 1924 goes something like this: In the coolest of sports attire, you arrive and are ushered into a room, “all done up” in its summer-time toggery of cool looking linens or gay chintzes. The blinds are drawn just so; inside, a deliciously shadowy coolness; outside a blistering sun. 

Tea Carts Are Kept Rolling 

The tea cart stands in the offing. Huge glass tankards, flanked by rows of tall glasses filled with cracked ice, await the steaming teapot's arrival. On the side there's a fragrant mass of mint piled high in a bowl of cracked ice; there's a crystal dish of sliced lemon, too. Take your choice for "flavor". A dash of powdered sugar to suit your individual taste, and a straw completes the “ensemble.” There are petite gateaux and sometimes tiny sandwiches. 

Convention oratory, relieved by burst of melody and the wildly reverberating howls and huzzahs of the rooters, furnish the program. There you are; qualified by first hand information to hold your conversational own with the returning hordes who “fought and bled” for entrance to the “garden.” Thursday’s baseball celebration proved a counter-attraction for the White House family. John and Calvin, Jr., have just got back to town from a visit, so the President and Mrs. Coolidge, both of whom are pretty good baseball fans, were reinforced by their sons, who are enthusiasts.— Special to the Sun, by Jean Jarvis, 1924

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia©️ Etiquette Encyclopedia