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

Wed Jan 3 06:10:36 UTC 2024

If you decide to include some background information with your article
then the following may be helpful, Bonnie. The OED has two pertinent
senses for wife-swapping:

permanent wife-swapping with a citation in 1851
temporary wife-swapping with a citation in 1953

I have found citations for the related phrase "swapping wives"
beginning in 1832.

[Begin OED excerpt]
wife-swapping NOUN

1. The permanent or long-term exchange of wives between married
couples, esp. for the purpose of remarriage. Now rare.

1851 The Mayor, with some trouble, made Mr. Brown understand that such
a business transaction, or wife-swapping, is not allowable.
Weekly Wisconsin (Milwaukee) 12 November

2. The practice of temporarily exchanging wives or sexual partners
between couples for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. Cf.
swinging n. 5.

1953 There was ‘wife-swapping’ with both husbands and wives knowing
about the activity.
Science News Letter 22 August 119/1
[End OED excerpt]

In the excerpt below "immortality" was probably supposed to be "immortality".

Date: May 26, 1832
Newspaper: Vermont Republican & Journal.
Newspaper Location: Windsor, Vermont
Article: The force of Precept
Quote Page 4, Column 5
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
The force of Precept.--The people of the West are tarring Mormonites
for the grossest irreligion and immortality, and at the same time
swapping wives from a love of novelty. After the lectures of Fanny
Wright and the strictures of a sad trollop of the same school, little
is to be expected but all those changes in the relations of society,
which contribute to gratify passion and debase mankind.
[End excerpt]

Date: June 2, 1832
Newspaper: Brattleboro' Messenger
Newspaper Location: Brattleboro, Vermont
Article: (Filler item)
Quote Page 1, Column 6
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Swapping Wives.--An exchange of these articles by a regular bill of
transfer was lately made at Pottsville, Penn. to the entire
satisfaction of all parties.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Jan 1, 2024 at 8:01 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> @Bonnie Taylor-Blake
>
> > 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.
>
>
> Fine by me . . . .
>
> ________________________________
> From: Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 1, 2024 4:57 PM
> To: American Dialect Society <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>; OEDUK <OED.UK at oup.com>
> Subject: "Key party" [1957]
>
> [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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