Topic summary
Cocktail parties
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Cocktail party.
Although it has been said that the inventor of the cocktail party was Alec Waugh of London, an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in May 1917 credited its invention to Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri. Mrs. Walsh invited 50 guests to her house on a Sunday at high noon for a one-hour affair. "The party scored an instant hit," the newspaper declared, stating that within weeks cocktail parties had become "a St. Louis institution".