All the way back at NACURH 2007, I went to a presentation from University of Nebraska – Lincoln about a program they did annually. It was a speakeasy, a 1920s themed club with swing dancing, cards, and gangsters. I barely remembered the presentation, but 15 months later, I still remembered the concept. As the grand finale for Fall Fest 2008, Missouri S&T RHA’s solid month of programs that kicks off every year, I was finally going to present the speakeasy program with the help of other executive board members.

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The speakeasy was held Friday, September 19th. In the weeks leading up to it, plans were made to involve three other campus organizations for the purposes of creating a very strong atmosphere during the event. I also wanted to make sure it already felt as if there was a party going on as people first started walking in to avoid that awkward “beginning of the event” feel. The aerial swing dancing club, the Perfect 10 Improv Comedy group, and the local radio station were all contacted and very excited about their roles. Also, this took some of the stresses of planning the event off of my shoulders and into the capable hands of these very specialized organizations.

The night of the event, a man in a trench coat sent people around to a single door back entrance guarded by a big door man with a cigar, a Tommy Gun, and a fedora. Upon walking inside they were met with free give-aways of plastic fedoras and long pearl necklaces so that even people who didn’t come dressed up didn’t feel out of place. There were lights and balloons. Everything was red, white, black, and gold. It was a classy establishment. There were bartenders serving mocktails in martini glasses and rows of tables of people playing poker and blackjack. The swing dancing club was doing stunts, throwing people in the air, and teaching people who had never swing danced before. The radio station was playing swing music off of vinyl records. Crooked cops were being paid off, there were scuffles at the card tables, drunken people were being hauled off and thrown outside, and very authentic 1920s personalities were interacting with everyone thanks to the improv club. There was so much going on. Flappers and gangsters were everywhere, about 130 of them on a program budget of about $600 on a night where I was competing with one of the largest frat parties the campus sees all year.

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One of the main goals of the program was to try different forms of advertising as well as progressive advertising. The first advertisements were life-sized, hand painted gangster standees. Each one of them took over 3 hours to project, trace, paint, cut, and back with cardboard, and there were four in total. These, along with a CD player boom box were put out near the lobbies or front desks in each complex to play a track from a CD during high traffic times of day. The track was recorded by one of our executive board members and, in a very Chicago gangster accent, gave the time, date and location in a 1920s slang laden speech. People’s reactions to an advertisement speaking to them were very entertaining to watch. A few days later a series of five different 8 ½ x 11 flyers went up. Following that some very large, printed posters adorned our hallways. The advertising was all handled as though a real night club was opening, not like a program was happening.

The other goals of the program were simply to create a memorable, 1920s experience for residents to enjoy and to reach out to other campus organizations.

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It was during the event that the executive board and I realized we had a real winner on our hands. The plan we made that night was to make this a recurring program, but to move “The Lucky Ace” club through different generations and have different decade-themed clubs. So, I did some follow-up advertising. I put police caution tape across my large posters and wrote a front page news article from the Chicago Times about how The Lucky Ace was closed down and the gangsters that ran it were brought to justice. However, the end of the article hinted at a return. Hopefully, people will buy into the idea of fiction surrounding a program. They certainly talked about the event and the advertising for days to come. My favorite part of the evening is when one of the presidents of the swing dancing club approached me to say, “This is the best campus sponsored event I’ve ever been to. It was a really unique experience.”

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This program went over really well. It will be remembered for a while, and will definitely reflect well on our RHA. It gave us a jumping off point to have other successful events throughout the year. It will build moment through each iteration. The most difficult parts of the planning process were justifying the time and expense for the advertising (we had to buy 4 CD player/boom boxes that could have potentially been stolen) and the decorations set up the day of.

Having cards as an option, for those who did not want to dance, was very helpful in keeping people at the event, as was already having a lot of volunteers there to stop “pre-program awkwardness.”

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This is essentially just throwing a costume ball-type dance, but is much heavier on the atmosphere. Make sure that tone of the event is planned and kept in mind through everything you do to prepare so that it isn’t left up to the participants to set a very complex tone themselves. Pay attention to the little touches like free give aways and using plastic martini glasses instead of just plastic cups. All these things can be found on Oriental Trading.

Form a committee of people who are good at just planning dances combined with people who are well connected with other organizations, especially the theater department. Be sure to use a good space, one with an “underground” feel that isn’t too large or too small for your expected turnout. Remember that swing dancing takes up a lot of space on a dance floor.

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