As good as was the first Ragtime Speakeasy (October, 2011), the one just held – on April 4, 2013 – was even better, with fantastic music from “Ginger Ale and His Sparklers” (Brad Kay and Those Syncopating Songbirds), wild antics from a cast of raffish characters, and a general air of breezy fun. The event also helped raise more than $2,000 to help produce RagFest 2013, and for one night, the Muckenthaler Cultural Center reverberated with vibes sympathetic to its origins – the mansion was built in the mid-1920s.

For all Muck and RagFest patrons, the evening really began on the east façade of the Muckenthaler Mansion, where gorgeous restored vintage automobiles lined the Palm Court driveway. Guests toddled up to the door, tapped on it, and were greeted through a small grate with the question “What’s the password?” Those who said “orange juice” were admitted in a jiffy. Beautiful banners hailed the “Golden Scarab Club” while also touting RagFest and the festival’s sponsors, the Muckenthaler and Friends of Jazz. In keeping with the ’20s Egyptian theme, the Muck mansion was also beautifully decorated with wonderful Egyptian artifacts. Dr. Al K. Holic was on hand, too, to offer Prohibition-era refreshments – referred to as “prescriptions for alcohol” – to anyone on the premises.

Many of the guests showed up in elegant ’20s finery, the women in vintage dresses, feathers and headbands typical of Roaring Twenties flappers, the men in dark suits, derbies, and lapel flowers. The various personas included pretty boys, matrons, gangsters and gamblers, augmented by the Muck’s cast of bouncers and cigarette girls. Collectively, they brought to life the era of bathtub gin, all-night shindigs and wild, uninhibited syncopated jazz.

Patrons found a beautiful bar and hors d’oeuvres plus a casino with fully manned craps and blackjack tables. The center of excitement, though, was The Gallery. RagFest founding artistic director Eric “Rags” Marchese welcomed the crowd, then introduced the evening’s musical talent, Brad Kay and Those Syncopating Songbirds – aka Ginger Ale & His Sparklers.

Over the course of the next two hours, the group and its various individuals dazzled us with a total of 22 selections. The bulk of these were from the ’20s, but we also heard two pieces from 1930 plus “I Fall in Love When You Kiss Me,” a 2012 original by Suzy Williams, which she sparklingly performed. Brad Kay ably led his entourage, which featured Ms. Williams, Ms. Marea Boylan, Ms. Mikal Sandoval, Mr. David Barlia, Mr. Dan Weinstein and Mr. Oliver Steinberg.

Among the evening’s other musical highlights: Duke Ellington’s “Jubilee Stomp” (1928); Marea Boylan’s performances of “Stumbling” (Zez Confrey, 1922) and Cole Porter’s “Two Little Babes in the Woods” (1928); Suzy Williams’ killer renditions of “He Loves and She Loves” (George and Ira Gershwin, 1927) and “If Your Kisses Can’t Hold the Man You Love” (Ellis and Yellen, 1930); Mikal Sandoval’s solos of “Keeping the Wolf Away From the Door” (Dubin and Burke, 1929), “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” (from Kern & Hammerstein’s 1927 Broadway show “Show Boat”) and “If I Had a Talking Picture of You” (DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, 1929); and David Barlia’s and Brad Kay’s version of “Magnolia” (DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, 1927).

The evening’s great instrumentals included Duke Ellington’s 1928 masterpiece “Black Beauty” and Sugar Underwood’s “Dew Drop Alley Stomp” (1927), played by Brad as a killer piano solo. Dan Weinstein ably took over on “Big Butter and Egg Man” (Louis Armstrong and Ralph Venables, 1926), which featured Marea on vocals, and proved himself, selection after selection, as a master of numerous period instruments and the appropriate style of performance. In fact, that could be said of the entire Brad Kay assembly, who will be back later this year for RagFest, featured on the Main Stage (outdoor amphitheater).

Among the evening’s comical antics, the bodyguards of Zoot “Fingers” Velasco, the notorious crime boss of Fullerton’s underworld, wished him a happy birthday by opening up a huge, life-size sarcophagus to introduce torch singer “The Torch” (Monette Velasco), who sang “Our Love is Here to Stay” in a Marilyn Monroe-Jessica Rabbit style. Her poison lipstick made fatal her passionate kiss of Fingers, who choked and keeled over in front of the stunned yet amused audience. Not even Dr. Holic could revive Fingers, who had to be carried off by his thugs – and leaving The Torch as Fullerton’s new lady crime boss! She inaugurated her rein of whimsy with the proclamation, “Fullerton is now mine! Play on, Mr. Kay!”

The attendees of this year’s Speakeasy also experienced the excitement of a full-fledged police raid. Actual police officers from the Fullerton Police Department, assisted by an actor, shined flashlights in guests’ faces, questioning them about the content of their coffee mugs. It was just one of the many lighthearted, memorable moments of a wonderfully memorable Ragtime Speakeasy event.