In National
Lampoon’s classic comedy Animal House
(1978), the “animals” respond to Dean Wormer’s decision to put them on “Double
Secret” probation by planning a decadent roman orgy or “toga party.”
“They’re going to nail us whatever we do, so
we might as well have a good time . . .
John Belushi’s
(as John “Bluto” Blutarsky) primal toga chant ushered in a resurgence in
American college fraternity “Toga parties.”
A toga party is a type of costume party in which attendees wrap
themselves in bed sheets reminiscent of ancient Roman or Greek togas, in
keeping with the nominal “Greek” theme of a typical American fraternity. The toga party in Animal House is said to be derived from screenwriter Chris
Miller’s experiences at Dartmouth University during the late-1950s and early
‘60s.
A number of
sources online point very specifically (almost unbelievably) to the precise
time and place of the first known college toga party – Mark Neuman’s home on
Hillcrest Avenue in Flintridge, California in 1953, while he was attending
nearby Pomona College. Eleanor Roosevelt
is said to have hosted a toga party in the White House to make light of the
fact that many people likened her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to
an American “Caesar.”[i]
 |
| Image from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library |
But the toga
party, under other names, is much older even than Eleanor Roosevelt who was born
in 1884. Eleanor Roosevelt’s parents or
grandparents could have attended a toga party (then generally known as a “sheet
and pillow slip party”) in the 1870s.
The earliest known college fraternity toga party (if not by that name)
was held at the Ohio State University (where else?) as early as 1886.
It all
started, as these things often do, in California:
Sheet
and Pillow-Slip Parties.
They do things differently
in California than in any other known spot on the face of the globe. Henceforth the drolleries of leap year
parties must “pale their ineffectual fires” before the last California social
novelty called “sheet and pillow-slip parties.”
The San Francisco Call, of
the 10th inst., describes glowingly the last one given there, under
the auspices of Pensacola Lodge No. 333, Independent Order of Good
Templars. The ball-room is described as
presenting the supposed appearance of the Ku-Klux in full regalia. About one hundred persons were entirely
enveloped in white sheets and pillow-slips arranged in
every conceivable shape and style.
Some wore white dominoes, and others were dressed in a costume which led
the blushing reporter to imagine that the ladies had taken their costumes from
under the pillow rather than from over.
. . . For merriment and
fun at the “sheet and pillow-slip” are said to exceed even the leap year
parties now prevailing. If the “new
departure” should break out here which it may do (there is no telling how
soon,) the important event will be duly chronicled. There is something as suggestive as it is
spicy about the “sheet and pillow-slip” party, and it may be the first step in
the great reformation in dress tending towards increased simplicity and
economy, now occupying the minds of thinking women, and husbands with large
milliner bills to pay.
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), March
22, 1872, page 4.
There are reports
of “pillow slip parties” during every decade from 1870 through the 1960s. The latest example I could find was a single
reference to one held in 1970. Most of
the “pillow slip” parties in the 1900s were hosted by fraternal organizations (like
the Order of Templars, Freemasons, Oddfellows, Sisters of Malta, and Easter
Star, Order of Moose or the like), civic organizations (like the American
Legion or the YWCA), or church groups.
I imagine these parties to have been more innocent that a late-20th
century fraternity bash, but you never know.
Some of those societies were secret-societies and may have just kept
those secrets well.
The notices
for several early “pillow slip” parties played up the (relatively) titillating
nature of the event:
“Pillow slip” parties are
the latest sensation at Dalton, Ga. They
are very popular, and – immensely suggestive.
The Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington,
North Carolina), October 31, 1872, page 2.
Dressing up
in loose, suggestive clothing presented a perfect opportunity for dancing – as
it did for Delta
House to the music Otis Day and the Knights in Animal House:
Grand
Sheet and Pillow Slip Party
As well out of the world,
as out of fashion. Another rich treat is
in store for all lovers of the terpsichorean art in this section, and the
announcement will be received with pleasure that a grand sheet and pillow slip
party is to be given under the management of the Terpsichorean Social Club, at
Dyer’s Hall, New Year’s Eve., Dec. 31, 1874. . . . The music will be all that can be desired,
the calling will be good, and the floor in prime condition for dancing, and a
fairer galaxy of ladies or a handsome set of men will probably never again
assemble under a roof in Reno.
Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada),
December 6, 1874, page 3.
Ghost Party. – A sheet and
pillow slip party will be given at the Pavilion Skating Rink this evening in
addition to the other attractions, and after the masquerading everybody will
have an opportunity to dance.
Sacramento Daily Union, March 25, 1876,
page 5.
In 1878, a
steamboat en route to New Orleans from Cincinnati, Ohio treated its passengers
to a dance party:
Thursday night the young
folks on the boat indulged in a “phantom ball,” or, as Pilot Kenley
characterized it, “a pillow-slip party.”
The performance had a decidedly ghostly look, but nobody seemed
frightened, and for an hour or two the dance (and fun) ran “fast and furious.”
Gettysburg Compiler (Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania), March 8, 1878, page 2.
At some
point before or during 1886, the
Terpsichore society of the Ohio State University (Terpsichore is the Greek muse of music and dance) put on what may be the earliest known college “toga party” (even if not by
that name):
Genesis of the
Terpsichore.
In the beginning, Uncle
Sam created the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Ohio State University.
. . . And William said, “Let Terpsichore
bring forth the Pillow-slip Party . . . ;” and it was so.
The Makio (Published Annually by the Fraternities of the Ohio State
University), Volume VI, 1886, Columbus, Ohio, Gazette Printing House, 1886,
page 79.
In 1892, a pillow-slip
“ghost party” caused a stir in Richmond Hill, Queens in New York City:
GAVE A GHOST PARTY.
Richmond Hill Excited Over
a Grewsome Gathering.
It was a grewsome thing to
do and no one knows exactly how the idea originated. Although it occurred three weeks ago all
Richmond Hill is still talking about it. . . .
In the vicinity of this quiet little village are several
cemeteries. Pine grove is one of the
most beautiful and best kept, although not so long established as most of them.
A man named Leonard is in
charge of it and he lives with his family in a cozy little house, near the main
entrance. In his household are two
bright and vivacious young women . . . and they decided about a month ago to
give a party to those who were not away for summer vacations. . . .
Someone suggested that it
be a ghost party. . . . The guests were all to come with sheets and pillow
slips as their fancy dress. Holes to
look through and to permit the entrance of air to breathe were to be cut in the
pillowslips. The arrangements were similar
to those for a masquerade ball. But the
crowning feature of the occasion was to be a parade of the guests attired in
their ghostly garb through the cemetery at midnight.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 7,
1892, page 8.
On Saturday evening
several friends of Mr. J. D. Wallace went out to his country residence and
surprised him with a pillow-slip party.
In spite of mishaps, the gay group finally arrived, and first gave the
astonished host a ghost dance on the porch and all over the front yard. Each visitor was arrayed in a weird pillow-case,
and wearing masks. After the fears of
Mr. Wallace had been allayed the crowd went inside and continued the ghastly
proceedings, to the amusement of Mrs. Wallace, who had been a party to the
deal.
The Wichita Daily Eagle (Wichita,
Kansas), October 23, 1898, page 6.
“Toga Parties”
References
to “toga parties,” by that name, appear regularly in college fraternity
yearbooks during the 1950s, 1960s and into the early 1970s. The earliest reference I could find is from Georgia Tech's Chi Phi brothers' “Toga Party” in October 1951:
There are several references to “toga
parties” thrown by the Sigma Chi chapter at Albion College and an unknown chapter of Theta
Delta Chi in 1952.[ii]
A sorority at the University of Miami got into the act as well, with a "Greek Toga party", but on a very non-Animal House-esque schedule - 3:30-6:30 PM:
The Alpha Kappa Lambda chapter of the University of California Berkeley hosted a “toga
party” in 1953, the same year in which Pomona College is said to have hosted their “first” college toga party - this party at least looks fun.
The “toga party” was only one of many party themes used by 1950s fraternities. During a typical November pledge-dance evening at Gettysburg College in 1959, for example, one might have attended a “Roman Toga party” at the Phi Gam house, Beatnik-themed parties at Tau Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Chi Rho or Kappa Delta Rho, a Beachcomber party at Sigma Chi, a “hobo” party at Phi Delta Theta, a German party at Sigma Nu, a days of chivalry “When Knighthood Was in Flower” party at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a Bohemian attire party at the ATO house, a gangster party at Theta Chi, or a totally theme-free party at Phi Sig (although they were giving away brandy snifters). [iii]
GLADIATORS ALL.
Maybe the Greeks had a word for it, but the Chi Phi brothers at Georgia Tech could not think what to call the skit they presented at their Toga Party Friday evening, which was rated one of the best campus parties of the year.
The Atlanta Constitution, October 6, 1951, page 12.
A sorority at the University of Miami got into the act as well, with a "Greek Toga party", but on a very non-Animal House-esque schedule - 3:30-6:30 PM:
Coeds Fill Up Party Calendar as Sorority Rushing Begins.
The Miami News, October 3, 1952, page 1 (address witheld to protect the very, very innocent).
Food was served in Roman style at "toga party" held at the Alpha Kappa Lambda Fraternity house in Berkeley. The principal fare, however, was a 20th Century favorite - sandwiches. Some 90 U. C. students attended party.
Oakland Tribune, April 13, 1953, page 15.
The “toga party” was only one of many party themes used by 1950s fraternities. During a typical November pledge-dance evening at Gettysburg College in 1959, for example, one might have attended a “Roman Toga party” at the Phi Gam house, Beatnik-themed parties at Tau Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Chi Rho or Kappa Delta Rho, a Beachcomber party at Sigma Chi, a “hobo” party at Phi Delta Theta, a German party at Sigma Nu, a days of chivalry “When Knighthood Was in Flower” party at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a Bohemian attire party at the ATO house, a gangster party at Theta Chi, or a totally theme-free party at Phi Sig (although they were giving away brandy snifters). [iii]
Animal House
did not invent the “toga party,” but it did turn them into a permanent and
popular fixture in American pop-culture.
College fraternity members of the 1950s did not invent “toga parties”
either, although they may have raised them to a higher art form than the civic,
church or fraternal order “pillow-slip” parties practiced by generations of
their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents.
[i]
Harry Mount, Carpe Diem: Put a Little
Latin in Your Life, New York, Hyperion Books, page 80.
[ii]
The Shield (Theta Delta Chi), Volume
69, Number 2, page 63; Battle Creek Enquirer, November 23, 1952, page 28.
[iii] The Weekly Gettysburgian, November 20,
1959, pages 1 and 8.
NOTE: Edited October 29, 2018, to include additional references to several early "toga parties" from 1951-1953.
NOTE: Edited October 29, 2018, to include additional references to several early "toga parties" from 1951-1953.
nice
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