Kevin Costner honorary chair of Moonlight at the Ranch IV: ‘The Roaring 20’s!’
March 17, 2010
Santa Paula News
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Kevin Costner |
You’ll want to “23-Skidoo!” to when the Jazz Age reigned for a rat-tat-tat time partying with flyboys, dames, gangsters, flappers, Lindbergh, Billy Sunday and Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie at Moonlight at the Ranch IV: “The Roaring 20’s!” The honorary chairman of the September 18 Moonlight celebration is Kevin Costner, the acclaimed actor and Academy Award-winning director of the 1990 film “Dances With Wolves.”
Costner also played famed law enforcer Eliot Ness in the 1987 hit film “The Untouchables.” Ness’ career started in the Roaring 20’s, and his crime-fighting activities reached their peak in the 1930 setting of the film, a fitting end to the real life drama of “The Lawless Decade” that preceded it.
“With Kevin Costner agreeing to be our honorary chair this year, it adds just the right ‘touch of class’ to make this another ‘untouchable’ great event,” said Santa Paula Police Chief Stephen MacKinnon, chairman of the Moonlight IV celebration. Moonlight at the Ranch, Ventura County’s signature event, will again benefit the Santa Paula Police & Fire Foundation and Chamber of Commerce. “Even though Kevin’s busy schedule can’t confirm his possible attendance just yet, he is already known as a strong supporter for Public Safety” and, noted MacKinnon, “we’re thrilled with his involvement.”
You’ll experience all the glamour and excitement of “The Roaring 20’s!” on September 18 from 5:30 to 11 p.m. at historic Limoneira Ranch, a venue constructed in that era of excess. “The password is ‘Joe sent me!’” and tickets are only $60 each.
Instead of the famous 1920’s fad of swallowing goldfish, there will be dozens of fine restaurants offering generous tastings, fine wineries from across the region, and no-host bars serving all that was banned during Prohibition. Moonlight will feature music to dance your “gams” off by the renowned Men on the Moon band, and there will be a series of fascinating displays and other music evoking the decade that defined America.
This celebration will knock your galoshes off in a venue that highlights “The Jazz Age,” when Prohibition prompted secret nightclubs with bathtub gin and where everyone broke the law; and everybody was invited, including gangster kingpin Al Capone.
During the Roaring 20’s Charles Lindbergh showed the world the “Spirit of St. Louis,” Babe Ruth (“The Sultan of Swat”) knocked them out of Yankee Stadium, and Howard Carter uncovered the centuries old tomb of King Tut. The Warner Brothers brought sound to film, a golden statue named Oscar was born, and F. Scott Fitzgerald created a new literature centered on “The Lost Generation.”
There was scandal plagued honeymooners “Peaches” and Daddy Browning, nightclub owning gregarious jazz baby Texas Guinan, gorgeous gold-digger Peggy Hopkins Joyce, the death of “The Sheik” sultry Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow’s bee-stung lips and John Barrymore’s swoon inducing profile. Everybody wanted to have “It,” and marathon dancing, flagpole sitting, mah-jongg and clip joints abounded amid the birth of Art Deco and surrealism that shared the world stage with the Cotton Club’s hot jazz and chorus line.
The Scopes Monkey Trial fascinated the public, and radio became a “Tune in next week, same time, same channel!” member of the family, bringing not only news but also topflight personalities into homes ruled by RCA’s canine mascot Nipper. From the sage and folksy funny Will Rogers and a young Jack Benny and others who “cracked wise” to Bix Beiderbecke & His Gang and Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra, the 20’s were the cat’s meow.
Scandal centered on media darling Aimee Semple McPherson, and many ignored the fervor of Billy Sunday, a preacher with charisma who helped solidify Prohibition with his “Booze, Or, Get on the Water Wagon” sermon. Whether you wanted to get rich quick or get well chanting Emile Coue’s “Day by day in every way I’m getting better and better,” the 1920’s was a time when anything could happen - and it usually did!
Ford “flivvers” were filled with “jazz babies” with marceled hair and rolled stockings driven by Debonair Don’s wearing coonskin coats with flasks in their pockets and friends in the rumble seat, on their way to enjoy doing the Charleston and the Shimmy at a hot jazz in a club where “The password is ‘Joe sent me!’” Having fun was the bee’s knees, and anyone willing to live by “Anything Goes!” wasn’t given the bum’s rush; you don’t want to be a chump and miss this authentic “It’s the berries!” blast to the Roaring 20’s past.
Wear Roaring 20’s attire - flapper look with short fringe and long beads and, for the gents, fedoras with flair - or come as yourself, a present day time-traveler taking part in the most fascinating decade in history. Whether you wear a vintage looking baseball uniform, dress like Lindy, mimic your favorite siren or sheik, gun moll or gangster, even Mickey Mouse - any of the decade’s never ending lineup of the famous and infamous - Moonlight will wear you out with a night of fun only possible during “The Lawless Decade.”
Moonlight will have Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and other great music, too. And much like Jack Dempsey when he squared off with George Carpentier for the Heavyweight Boxing Championship - the first $1 million gate - you’ll land a knockout punch by reliving the Roaring 20’s at Moonlight at the Ranch IV.
