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

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Excellent, Bill, thanks so much.

Here are a couple of mentions from 1955 and 1956 that I found earlier, but
which don't contain an actual term for the party (e.g., key party, key
game, etc.).

Rather than tweeting those out, I think I'd like to put together a blog
post on all these sightings from the '50s, with prior permission of
contributors here, of course.

-- Bonnie

Uncovered in Cleveland, and reportedly tried on a different scale here, is
a swap club: all members of a party throw their car keys into a pile and
women pair up with men who pick up their keys out of a jumble. [In "The
Nite Watchman" column, from Erie (Pennsylvania) Sunday Times, 9 January
1955, p. 9-D.]

"Wild?" said Bob. "Do you know what they do out here at a party? All the
men throw their car keys into a pile on the rug and then each woman picks
up a key and goes home with the person who owns the car." [In Art
Buchwald's "Hollywood 'Inside -- for $3.50," Detroit Free Press, 3 April
1956, p. 28.]

On Mon, Jan 1, 2024 at 5:57 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:

[1954 Washington Post and Times Herald Nov 3/1
>
> Early in the investigation of the Clark murder, circumstances leading up
> to the killing reportedly included wild "wife-swapping" parties among the
> Clarks and their friends.  These reports were vehemently denied by
> prosecution and defense officials. They denied there was any evidence of
> such parties, in which husbands were supposed to have tossed their house
> keys onto the floor while the women scrambled for them, and took as her
> husband-for-the night the man whose keys she recovered.]
>
>
> https://archive.org/details/per_washington-post_1954-11-30_360/page/3/mode/1up?q=%22wife+swapping%22+keys
>
>
>
> 1956 Rage Dec v1n1 10/2
>
> 'Key' parties, wife-swapping—and now the latest thrill of jaded pleasure
> seekers . . . I Played Suburbia's Newest Sex Game
>
>
> https://archive.org/details/rage-v-01n-01-1956-12.-arnold-elvis-ia/page/10/mode/1up?q=%22key+parties%22
>
>
>
> keysies
>
> 1956 U.S. Coast Guard Magazine Mar. 28/3
>
> At some suburban gatherings it is easy to get the impression that the
> frolickers have nothing in common but sex, nothing else to talk about and
> joke about. If the parlor games do not achieve the organized level of
> ‘keysies’ they certainly get as far as ‘kneesies’ and ‘grabbies’ and other
> informal pastimes . . . .” (Keysies, by the way, is a game where the girls
> toss their keys on the floor and the men pick one and disappear with its
> owner! )
>
>
> https://archive.org/details/sim_u-s-coast-guard-magazine_1956-03_29_5/page/28/mode/1up?q=%22toss+their+keys%22
>
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>

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