Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment / Or the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad; Containing Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions, Including Calls; Invitations; Parties; Weddings; Receptions; Dinners and Teas; Etiquette of the Street; Public Places, Etc., Etc. Forming a Complete Guide to Self-Culture; the Art of Dressing Well; Conversation; Courtship; Etiquette for Children; Letter-Writing; Artistic Home and Interior Decorations, Etc.

by Maud C. Cooke

Invitations for Theater Parties.

He then gives the invitations in person to the selected number of his lady friends, not less than six, not more than fifteen, explaining to the mothers who will chaperon the party and what gentlemen he has invited. These must number the same as his lady guests and will have been chosen from among the most eligible of his friends.

The rendezvous will be at the restaurant where dinner will be served at six o’clock. The young ladies attended by father, brother or a maid, come in carriages and the coachman is told at what hour to return. This is usually half past twelve or one o’clock.

The dinner will be served in a sumptuously decorated, private dining-room, and by eight o’clock the party are en route in carriages for the play. Each lady is first supplied with exquisite corsage and hand bouquets by an attentive maid.

Boxes are engaged at the theater, or in case of large parties, the front row of the balcony. Programs printed on scented satin are frequently placed in front of each chair and serve as souvenirs of the occasion. When the play is over the party returns in carriages to the same restaurant where an elegant supper is laid.

Frequently each lady finds costly souvenirs at her plate. Each gentleman acts as escort through the evening to whatever lady he has been assigned by the host. At the appointed hour carriages call for the ladies and the gentlemen escort them thereto. If some male relative comes, he does not accompany her home, but if it is the maid only, he is expected so to do.

The young ladies and gentlemen must call upon the chaperon within a few days and the host calls upon the mothers to express thanks for the pleasure of the daughter’s attendance. The men invited must each call within three days upon the especial lady to whom they devoted their time during the evening, or if this is impossible, leave a card.

A simpler form of this entertainment is where the host calls upon each proposed guest, and if the invitation is accepted, leaves two entrance tickets, and one for some male relative who must accompany her. The party meet in the box, where the host and a lady chaperon greet them. After the theater supper is served at some fashionable resort, or perhaps at the home of some friend, where dancing occasionally follows the supper. After calls are expected.

These parties are sometimes given by a lady, when the invitations are sent by informal notes in her own name, and a six o’clock dinner laid in her own home precedes the opera. After the entertainment the guests return in carriages to the house where a little supper is served, and perhaps some dancing varies the program.

Occasionally this entertainment takes the form of a matinée party of ladies only, who adjourn at its close to the hostess’s home for a supper.