[Ads-l] "Key party" [1957]

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Thanks for this, Andy.

I had included a reference to the "key game" in the March, 1959 issue of
Cosmo ("The Sordid End to the Swap-Mate Scandal"), though I had somehow
concluded this was a work of fiction rather than a true-crime narrative
from events that had taken place years earlier.

I appreciate the chance to correct the record.

-- Bonnie

On Mon, Jan 1, 2024 at 4:45 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

The page
>
> https://midcenturypage.com/2022/01/20/mid-century-true-crime-the-melvin-clark-murder/
>
> From the mention story
>
> https://vintagegaze.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/midcenturypage-swap-mate-scandal-cosmo-march-1959-14.pdf
>
>
> Gives a 1953 date for the swapping parties, but doesn’t use the “key” word
>
> Andy Bach
> Afbach at gmail.com
> Not at my desk
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 1, 2024 at 2:12 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake <
> b.taylorblake at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > A little something to spice up the new year.
> >
> > After rewatching Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" the other day, I went looking
> > for early appearances of "key party."
> >
> > Neither OED nor Merriam-Webster have entries for "key party," but in a
> 2018
> > article SF Weekly's Joe Kukura reported a 1965 appearance of the term.
> >
> >
> >
> https://www.sfweekly.com/archives/did-key-parties-ever-really-happen/article_7cdda389-9c58-59d7-b46b-92f5cc51da93.html
> >
> > Although I did finally stumble on an early "'Key' party," I gave up
> looking
> > for "key party" itself after getting mired in so many mentions of "key
> > party officials" and similar. (Some patient person here may well find
> > earlier uses of "key party.") But the wife-swapping "key parties" wasn't
> > that difficult to find.
> >
> > And although "key party" is the designation that seems to have survived,
> I
> > see that "key game" was a popular synonym, at least in 1959. I've
> included
> > a usage of that term far below.
> >
> > Kukura also cited something contending that "the original spouse-sharers
> > were none other than World War II fighter pilots [...] It was the pilots
> > and their wives who invented the term 'key club,' which was unknown in
> the
> > '40s, [and] became widely known in the '50s and '60s."
> >
> > Unfortunately, I was unable to find references, subtle or otherwise, to
> > wife-swapping "key clubs" except for "Key Club Wives," the name of an
> adult
> > film that came out in the late '60s.
> >
> > But I did find descriptions of these diversions that go back to 1955 and
> > 1956, though these popular-press articles lack the specific terms "key
> > party," "key game," and "key club." (I'll tweet those out.)
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > ----------------------------------
> >
> > We hear rumors going around in one of the nicer sections of Greater
> > Pittston that is rather shocking. The report is that some of the
> > not-so-young and not-so-old married couples have a "Key" party every now
> > and then. At the end of the party, the wives throw the keys to their home
> > on the floor, and whoever picks up the keys, goes that night with the
> owner
> > of the key, while her husband is tagging along to another home with
> someone
> > else's key. Hard to believe. We'd have to see it to believe it, although
> > sources in the area swear to the authenticity of the rumor. [In "Our
> Town,"
> > Sunday Dispatch (Pittston, Pennsylvania), 21 July 1957, p. 4.]
> >
> > For information about sexual activities in the suburbs, you must go to
> > indirect sources. There is plenty of gossip. You can get information
> about
> > "key parties" in Westchester County [New York] from people who've never
> > been to one and can't pinpoint where they took place. [Earl Ubell,
> > "Suburban Women Seem More Satisfied With Their Husbands," Burlington
> (North
> > Carolina) Daily Times-News, 22 January 1959, p. 3A.]
> >
> > Soon they were seeking more variety and excitement and started having
> what
> > they called "key parties." The women would throw their house keys in the
> > middle of the room and the men would each take a key plus the woman to
> whom
> > the key belonged. [From a letter to Ione Quinby Griggs, "One Mate Swapper
> > Now in Death Cell," The Milwaukee Journal, 13 March 1959, p. 4.]
> >
> > Questioned as to details, Patrick said that "seven or eight couples
> > actually swapped mates for the evening by drawing keys from a bowl while
> > blindfolded, or in a darkened room, and the owner of the key "paired off"
> > for the night with the person who had drawn tthe [sic] key. Further
> > information, the prosecutor stated, indicated that at least one of the
> > couples regularly hired a babysitter to look after their children while
> > they attended the key parties. ["Prosecutor bares wife-swapping in Oak
> > Harbor 'Key Game!'," Island County Times (Coupeville, Washington), 13
> > August 1959, p. 1.]
> >
> > DURBAN, South Africa -- (Reuters) -- Strip poker and "key parties" are
> now
> > out of date in Durban. The craze now tickling the fancy of Durban's gay
> > young social set is the "feather game" -- so called because feathers
> figure
> > prominently in the game, which ends with most of the women players
> stripped
> > to their underwear. ["Feathering for strips," The Houston (Texas) Post,
> 26
> > May 1963, Section 7, p. 2.]
> >
> > Then she described another social aberration, called "key parties," in
> > which she and her husband had participated. In this type of social life,
> a
> > group of couples go off to a motel and register. Then they all get
> together
> > in the lounge and after getting pretty well tanked they toss their room
> > keys onto the floor. Then they draw lots and in turn each woman picks up
> a
> > key and goes off with the man it belongs to. [Norman Vincent Peale,
> "Moral
> > Structure Hits Skids," Staten Island Advance, 15 August 1964, p. 3.]
> >
> > ---------------
> >
> > The ultimate solution was the key game. Into a hat the men tossed their
> > flat, brass, remarkably similar house keys. A brisk shaking, and then
> into
> > the hat groped the wives at a given signal. To whatever master of the
> house
> > the key belonged, so belonged for the night the woman who had drawn it.
> [In
> > George Scullin's short story, "The Sordid End to the Swap-Mate Scandal,"
> > Cosmopolitan, March 1959, p. 32.]
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
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