{"id":73730,"date":"2013-03-06T08:19:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T13:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=73730"},"modified":"2013-03-12T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T12:43:10","slug":"speaking-of-the-great-gatsby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/03\/speaking-of-the-great-gatsby\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of The Great Gatsby"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jacob<\/a>
Jacob Conshick ’13 (CANR) enjoys a (gum) cigar at the Gatsby speakeasy party, a 1920’s-themed reception. (Max Sinton ’15 (CANR)\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At a sold out 1920’s-themed reception at the William Benton Museum of Art on March 1, a cast of characters that included mobsters and their molls*, flappers** and their friends, and (perhaps) even the Great Gatsby himself, mixed and mingled to the sounds of live music from Tin Pan Alley.***<\/p>\n

The event, which was sponsored by the Bean Team, a group of students devoted to bringing art to UConn through various programs and events, and the UConn Reads Steering Committee, was considered to be the bee\u2019s knees**** by the dolls***** and their Big Cheese****** boyfriends, who all agreed that the joint******* was jumping and the Benton was highly successful in Putting on the Ritz********, while celebrating the style and substance of F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s novel, The Great Gatsby<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The speakeasy party took its name from the establishments that illegally sold alcohol during Prohibition, although at the Benton, Hosmer sodas stood in for alcoholic beverages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*moll<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 a gangster\u2019s girl
\n**flapper \u2013<\/b> a stylish, brash young woman with short skirts & shorter hair
\n***Tin Pan Alley<\/b> \u2013 the music industry in NYC located between 48th and 52nd Street
\n****bee\u2019s knees<\/b> \u2013 an extraordinary person, thing, idea; the ultimate
\n*****doll <\/b>\u2013 an attractive woman
\n******Big Cheese<\/strong> \u2013 big shot
\n*******joint <\/b>\u2013 establishment
\n********Putting on the Ritz<\/b> \u2013 doing something in high style (after the Ritz Hotel in Paris)<\/p>\n

\"Assistant<\/a>
Assistant curator Ally Walton surveys the scene at the Benton before the Gatsby speakeasy party on March 1. (Max Sinton ’15 (CANR)\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Robert<\/a>
Robert Heme ’14 and Ariel Agron ’14 ask for passwords near the entrance. Participants were required to pick up a secret password to say to the doorman in order to be admitted to the party. (Max Sinton ’15 (CANR)\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A group of party-goers and Benton staff pose with a cut-out of a 1920’s era car. (Max Sinton ’15 (CANR)\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Great Gatsby, this year’s UConn Reads selection, was celebrated at a speakeasy party at the Benton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":73674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-73730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:16:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73730"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74027,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73730\/revisions\/74027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/73674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73730"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=73730"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=73730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}