A Few Other Tips to Turn Our Game into a Swell Party (Music, Dance and Slang)
Set the Scene Jazz Music - That Most Popular of All Twenties' Music
What better way to set the scene for a Roaring Twenties Speakeasy mystery than to play the type of music that dominated the speakeasies in the twenties? We're talking jazz, doll, the music of moonshine and underground bars (speakeasies). Stars such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and King Oliver rose up through the speakeasies; other bar owners hired jazz bands to create that all-important party mood.
We suggest that you create a playlist and then play this as guests arrive and as guests complete the accusation forms. Some hosts also like to have jazz music playing quietly in the background as food is served.
A few famous songs of the decade are "Stardust" (Hoagy Carmichael), "Heebie Jeebies" and "The St Louis Blues" (Louis Armstrong), "Ain't Misbehavin" and "Honeysuckle Rose" (Fats Waller), "Gulf Coast Blues" and "I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle" (Bessie Smith, that celebrated Empress of Blues), "Rhapsody in Blue" (George Gershwin composition), "In the Jailhouse Now" (Jimmie Rodgers), "Makin' Whoopee" (Eddie Cantor), and "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" and "The Mooche" (Duke Ellington).
Try Some Roaring 20s' Dances
Who hasn't heard of The Charleston, that famous 20s' dance named after the city of Charleston in South Carolina? This dance forms a central part of our murder mystery game as characters danced The Charleston in the lead-up to the murder and The Moonshine Gap Temperance and Moralism Society campaigned to have it banned! (The dance is obscene, they claimed - ladies' legs could be seen and those shameless flappers rouged their knees to draw gentlemen's attention!)
Try playing "The Charleston" in between rounds or at the end of the murder mystery; optionally offer a "best dancing" prize.
Other dances popular in the Roaring Twenties were The Breakaway, The Black Bottom, The Shimmy, The Toddle and the Lindy Hop. Then there were the more traditional ballroom dances such as the Foxtrot, Waltz and American Tango.
Don't be a Bluenose - Be The Bee's Knees with the Right Slang
Each character's pre-party booklet and party booklet is written in the type of 1920s slang that would be appropriate to that character. This saves guests having to do their own research.
In addition, we have created a poster giving some of the popular 1920s' slang that characters use in their party booklets. This is provided in the game's decoration pack. You can hang this on your wall for all to see or even send it to your guests if you choose.
