Gatsby and Art Deco Party Ideas in Tulsa

Why Tulsa for a Gatsby Party

Downtown Tulsa was built on oil money in the decade the theme is about. The Mayo Hotel opened in 1925 as the tallest building in Oklahoma. The Tulsa Club followed in 1927, one of Bruce Goff's first buildings, full of zigzag plasterwork. Waite Phillips finished the Philtower in 1928, and Boston Avenue Methodist, built from 1924 to 1929, is now a National Historic Landmark.

Visit Tulsa counts downtown as the third-highest concentration of art deco in the country. A Gatsby party here borrows the look of buildings your guests drive past every week. Tulsa Through the Tarot pairs those landmarks with the cards, one building at a time.

Rooms That Already Look the Part

Five rooms, smallest first: two downtown hotels from the 1920s and three historic mansions to the south. Call the venue before anyone else.

• Tulsa Club Hotel, 115 E. 5th St. The purest deco on this list. The mezzanine holds up to 80, the Sky Terrace up to 175, and the ballroom, with hardwood floors and floor-to-ceiling windows, up to 280.
• Tulsa Garden Center, 2435 S. Peoria Ave., in Woodward Park. A 1920 mansion with a marble foyer. The gold-leafed library seats 12 to 16, the lower-level ballroom up to 60, the auditorium 250 to 300.
• The Mayo Hotel, 115 W. 5th St. The Grand Hall holds up to 300 on original marble floors. The Crystal Ballroom, 7,784 square feet, keeps its original terrazzo and crystal chandeliers.
• Travis Mansion and Vintage Gardens, Tulsa Historical Society, 2445 S. Peoria Ave. Outdoors, beside the Garden Center: up to 320 seated under a tent, with the historic mansion behind and cocktails on the terrace.
• Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Rd. Waite Phillips's 1927 villa, given to the city in 1938. The Guest Lounge seats 50, the Villa Terrace and Great Hall 250 seated or 300 standing, the Tandy Pavilion 500 or more standing.

For forty guests: the Tulsa Club mezzanine, the Garden Center ballroom, or Philbrook's Guest Lounge. For two hundred: the Tulsa Club ballroom, the Mayo's Grand Hall, or Philbrook's Villa Terrace and Great Hall.

Dressing a Plain Room

Deco is mostly geometry and contrast, so a living room or a rented hall comes around with less than you would expect. Pick a few things and repeat them.

• Two colors, held strictly: black and gold, with cream if you need a third. One shade of gold for everything metallic.
• Geometry, not pictures: gold paper fans on one wall, a sunburst mirror over the bar, a chevron runner down the table.
• Candlelight in glass: votives everywhere, tapers in brass, the overheads off.
• A few feathers in tall clear vases.
• Coupe glasses, rented if need be, never plastic.
• A photo wall of gold fringe on black, with boas, pearls and bow ties for guests who came underdressed.

What reads as a costume shop: plastic tommy guns, foil "Roaring 20s" banners, cartoon flappers on paper plates. One good mirror does more than ten party-store props.

Music: a Jazz Trio, a Swing Band, or a DJ

A jazz trio sets the period without asking anyone to dance. A swing band is for a room that came to dance. A DJ with a period set does either.

• Cost: The Bash puts the average Tulsa jazz band at about $598 and the average Oklahoma swing band at about $917. Thumbtack's range for a Tulsa DJ runs up to about $800, depending on set length and the size of the room.
• Space and time: a trio needs a corner and an outlet. A swing band needs a cleared floor, power and a sound check before doors. A DJ needs a table and a set list from the 1920s and 1930s.
• Suits: a trio fits a 40-guest cocktail party. A swing band or a DJ fits 150 with a floor.

Drinks and Food

Three cocktails, each in print by the end of the decade:

• The French 75: gin, lemon, sugar and champagne. Difford's Guide traces the name to the French 75-millimeter field gun and the gin-and-champagne version to 1927.
• The Sidecar: cognac, orange liqueur and lemon in equal parts. Its first printed recipes appeared in two cocktail books in 1922.
• The Bee's Knees: gin, lemon and honey. Difford's places it at the Ritz in Paris, in Frank Meier's 1929 book.

Make a zero-proof version of each, with sparkling water where the champagne would go.

At an event venue, ask who pours. Oklahoma's ABLE Commission says anyone serving alcohol at a private event there needs an event bartender license unless they hold a caterer or mixed beverage license, and mobile bars are not allowed in the state. Thumbtack puts a hired bartender for a private party at about $270 to $390.

Food should be eaten standing, with a coupe in the other hand: deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail in small cups, cheese straws, sliders. Zola's national figures for a cocktail-style wedding reception run about $35 to $55 a guest; treat that as a ceiling.

Entertainment That Fits the Era

Music is the thing to watch. Add one thing to do, or two for a large room.

A Close-Up Magician

Card tricks at the cocktail tables, in a dinner jacket. It breaks up clusters of guests who only know each other.

• Cost: The Bash puts the average Tulsa magician at about $492.
• Space and time: none for roaming work. A short stage set needs seats and sightlines.
• Suits: 40 to 150 guests, especially when half of them are strangers.

A Caricature Artist

Ask for ink on cream card in a 1920s magazine style, and every guest leaves with a souvenir.

• Cost: The Bash puts the average Tulsa caricaturist booking at about $353.
• Space and time: two chairs and good light. One artist quoted by Thumbtack draws 15 to 20 black-and-white faces an hour, fewer in color.
• Suits: up to about 60 guests per artist over three hours.

A Photo Booth With a Period Backdrop

The backdrop makes it a Gatsby booth: black and gold fringe and a prop table of boas, pearls, fedoras and long gloves.

• Cost: Thumbtack's national figures put a weekend package with a custom backdrop at about $600 to $1,000, and extra hours at about $100 to $150.
• Space and time: a wall and an outlet, all night.
• Suits: 75 guests and up. For forty, the photo wall and a phone on a tripod do the job.

Casino Tables

Blackjack and roulette with play money and prizes, for the speakeasy side of the decade.

• Cost: Thumbtack puts casino party rentals at about $372 to $847, dealers usually included. A tip of twenty to forty dollars per dealer is customary.
• Space and time: seats for about 40 percent of the guests, which means four or five tables per hundred, seven or eight players to a table. Packages usually run four hours of play.
• Suits: 100 guests or more.

A Tarot Reader

Full disclosure: I am the tarot reader who writes this site, so weigh this section with that in mind.

A reading at a party is a few minutes with one guest, or a pair, at a small table in a quieter corner. The guest brings a question, about work, a move or the year ahead, and the cards are talked through. No theatrics, nothing heavy, and no one has to believe anything to enjoy it.

I set up before guests arrive and bring the cloth, the deck, the lighting and the decor. If you have a table and two chairs, I dress them. If you do not, I bring the full setup.

The deck on the table is the Aquarian Tarot, drawn by David Palladini and published in 1970 in an art deco hand: long faces, flat gold, stepped borders. It matches a black-and-gold room before anyone sits down. The images descend from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck Pamela Colman Smith drew in 1909, so the symbols are the ones most guests half remember.

• Cost: private events start at $300 for up to two hours, with more time at $125 an hour, and the readings are free for your guests.
• Space and time: a small table, two chairs, and somewhere a guest can be heard without the whole room listening in.
• Suits: 20 to 60 guests for one reader. Tell me the headcount and I will tell you honestly how many readings fit, or arrange a second reader.

Timeline and Budget

1. Four to six months out: the room, then the band. Tulsa planners hire a swing band about 179 days ahead and a jazz band about 119, by The Bash's figures.
2. Eight weeks out: the act. Tulsa planners book magicians and caricaturists about 56 days ahead, tarot readers about 54.
3. Six weeks out: the invitations, dress code included. The Emily Post Institute puts formal dinners at three to six weeks and says to err early for an important party; a theme needs the early end.
4. Four weeks out: confirm who pours, and order the coupes and candles.
5. One week out: final headcount to the venue and caterer; arrival times to each act.
6. The day of: candles lit before the doors open, the trio playing as guests arrive, the act in place by the first drink.

Two sample budgets, built only from the figures above. The room and the bottles are not in them, since every venue quotes by date and package.

Forty guests, a cocktail party:

• Food: 40 guests at $35 to $55 a head, about $1,400 to $2,200.
• Bar: one hired bartender, about $270 to $390.
• Music: a jazz trio, about $598.
• Entertainment: a tarot reader for two hours, $300.
• Total: about $2,568 to $3,488, before the room and the bottles.

One hundred and fifty guests, with dancing:

• Food: 150 guests at $35 to $55 a head, about $5,250 to $8,250.
• Bar: two hired bartenders, about $540 to $780.
• Music: a swing band, about $917.
• Photo booth: a weekend package with a custom backdrop, about $600 to $1,000.
• Casino tables: about $372 to $847, plus dealer tips.
• Tarot reader: three hours, $425.
• Total: about $8,104 to $12,219, before the room and the bottles.