Partying on: Book about famous New York shindig has surprising ties to Toledo

As it approaches its 20th anniversary, the annual Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governors Island, N.Y., will be the subject of an upcoming coffee table book in partnership with Toledo’s own Social B. Creative marketing network.

Every summer, thousands of wannabe flappers, prohibition partiers, and oil barons take the ferry to Governors Island off Manhattan to partake in the Jazz Age Lawn Party. Now a New York tradition, each year the JALP attracts returning fans and new participants for a weekend of Jazz Age reenactment and splendor. Governors Island’s lack of reliable cell service adds to the authenticity as well, amidst the vintage dresses, pinstripe suits, boaters hats, bowties, and, of course, the displays of live jazz entertainment.

The party takes place over two weekends each summer — one in June and one in August.

One such vintage frock at this past June’s festival was from Toledo’s own House of Dow vintage clothing shop, worn by Laura Upton of Social B. Creative, who was attending the party for her first time to promote the upcoming coffee table book about the event.

The book is the brainchild of Linda Secondari, the principal and creative director of Studiolo Secondari — a design firm based in New York City that specializes in book development. Secondari, a proclaimed fan of the Jazz Age Lawn Party, first took part in the affair in 2017, when she was immediately inspired to memorialize the event into a coffee table book.

“I just looked at the amazing experience, with the level of dressing — I mean, the outfits are just magnificent — and picnics with silverware and china and all sorts of amazing things, and then the music and the performances, I mean, it just felt like it had to be a book,” Secondari said. “It felt like it was already a book.”

Alongside Michael Arenella, the bandleader of the Dreamland Orchestra and founder of the Jazz Age Lawn Party, Secondari created a luxurious coffee table book featuring hundreds of photos and a number of stories from both the Jazz Age Lawn Party and the Jazz Age itself.

“Linda is a true visionary with her artistry. Her understanding of design and storytelling make me feel truly lucky to be brought on to this project,” said Upton.

Secondari’s husband, Alan Black, a Sylvania native, “has been a huge support and teammate through the process of getting the book funded for publication,” Upton said.

The patrons of the book are hoping to make it available by the 20th Jazz Age Lawn Party, which will take place next summer. The production of the 200-page large, color book requires $199,000, prompting the creators to start a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign for the project. Benefactors have the option to donate within various different tiers, each promising its own unique thank-you gifts. All who donate to the project will have their names featured on the contributors page. So far, the project has garnered just shy of $7,000.

“Funding is the biggest obstacle because the content tells the story itself. We have literally thousands of photos to choose from, and the storyline itself is really interesting. The Jazz Age is fascinating,” Secondari said. “But I do like a challenge.”

Unfortunately, book promotion didn’t go as smoothly as planned when the team advertised the book at the June weekend of the Jazz Age Lawn Party. Because of Governors Island’s notoriously unreliable cell service, it was difficult for supporters of the project to use their phones to donate on-site with the QR code the team was advertising.

However, Emily Rippe Desmond, founder and CEO of Social B. Creative, has more plans to promote the book, particularly in the Midwest region. Given Toledo’s rich jazz history and the project’s ties to the area, the upcoming book has seen notable community engagement and support from far more than just the East Coast.

According to Desmond, she is planning to prominently feature the Jazz Age Lawn Party and its accompanying book in Social B. Creative’s new and upcoming magazine, entitled Swell , of which she is also the editor-in-chief. The first issue of Swell is set to release Sunday, and the subsequent issue is scheduled for December. She plans to significantly showcase the Jazz Age Lawn Party book in that second issue.

Social B. Creative is also planning to set up jazz nights with local artists to promote the book in Toledo, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. So far, Desmond has received interest from a Cincinnati-based quartet that may perform the shows.

The second weekend of this summer’s Jazz Age Lawn Party is set to take place on Governors Island, Aug. 10.