http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-Jezebel/Detail.aspx

this is a favorite at my aunt's - it's a little weird-looking, but once you get up the nerve to try it it's delicious!

I have some retro cookbooks from Grandma. One of the most interesting recipes in the book is an appetizer using canned meat and jar of cheese shaped into a pineapple with olives as the eyes. The most interesting part? You use the top off of a real pineapple to adorn your fake meat and cheese pineapple. Not suggesting you eat, but it would def. make a center piece to talk about!

Pigs in a blanket would be fun and can definitely be updated - try making them with cut up herbed chicken sausages or good italian sausage. You could add some cheese or herbs to the dough as well.

There are editions of both Betty Crocker and Joy of Cooking that date to the 50s -- check those out.
Also hit Goodwill -- it is amazing the books you can find there after someone cleaned out grandma's stash! A fun project!

Rumaki - chicken liver and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon. Total 50s hors d'oeuvres. Also, bourbon hot dogs. Put a hot plate with a pot of these and a little jar of the cellophane frilled toothpicks!

Rumaki - a fifties tiki style appetizer. Basically it is water chestnut and chicken liver wrapped in bacon and broiled. I have a friend who makes it for potlucks and it disappears very very fast. Google has lots of recipes for it

Pimento Cheese Spread and Ritz Crackers!

Its a Southern thang...I went to a party where the hosts were from the South and they served this. It looks quite festive and seems like an "old" enough recipe. From a brief google search, NPR recently did a piece on it and includes a recipe at the bottom:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6877304

Good luck!

Olive cheese puffs! There are tons of recipes online, but it's basically shredded cheddar cheese, flour, butter and a bit of paprika made into a dough, then shaped around green olives and baked. Delicious (addictive, even) and very retro.

I'm also a fan of champagne punch, which I think has a fun retro vibe.

A cheese ball is clearly required. Blend good cheese of your choice about 50/50 with cream cheese and herbs of your choice, roll in nuts and serve with crackers. Ritz crackers would be traditional on the side, but a few celery sticks would not be amiss either.

How about one of those sandwich loaves?

Get a loaf of dense white bread, unsliced. Slice off the crusts, then slice horizontally into 3 or 4 layers. Fill each layer with a different kind of salad: ham, chicken, tuna, egg.
Frost the whole thing with cream cheese (thinnned with a little milk or cream). You could even tint the cream cheese with food coloring and/or sliced green olives.

Gram used to make this for bridal and baby showers, when I was a wee girl.

What about old-school style finger sandwiches shaped in triangles with the crusts cut off?

My favorite part is the picture you used -- I inherited a set of those fabric paints (including fabulous metal tin container). I wish I knew where those were... I hope they're still in storage. Many of them still worked when I was a kid, and I used them for lots of projects.

What a cute idea.

I can suggest...

A once-popular dip made with canned deviled ham and cream cheese and/or sour cream. Add a few shots of hot sauce.

And for an easy to serve dessert...a tomato soup cake, which is like a spice cake, OR a chocolate mayonnaise cake, which is just extra moist. Very fifties and extra kitschy when baked in a bundt pan, of course.

Get a copy of James Lilek's Regrettable Food.

devilled eggs
pigs-in-a-blanket
fruit kabobs
jello salad

Swedish Meatballs! They are sooooo fancy!

also some kind of round yellow layer cake on a cool platter with retro decorations. you'll do great!

My mother would make pinwheel sandwiches for parties - very retro.

Take an unsliced loaf of soft bread, trim all the crusts and slice lengthwise. Spread each long rectangular slice of bread with cream cheese whipped with a little half and half to make it spreadable and what ever flavoring you like. Strawberry jam is good if you want something sweet or for savory, chopped green onions and dill. Roll the bread into log, wrap with plastic and refrigerate overnight. Cut into slices.

Fondue.

Scallops wrapped in bacon
Sweet Pickled Watermelon Rind wrapped in bacon
Celery stuffed with blue cheese and cream cheese
Meatballs and Hot Dogs in grape jelly and chile sauce
Deviled Eggs

raemoe's got it down to the T. all crowd pleasers and cheap to make.

I think a jell-o mold screams 1950s. I was shocked to see how many recipes are available. Some are scary combinations like the fake meat/cheese pineapple mentioned above. http://www.joycesfinecooking.com/jello_gelatin_recipes.htm

ham roll ups with a dill pickle and cream cheese inside. also anything in gelatin. apparently it was very big then. i saw a recipe for tuna salad sort of molded and then surrounded by clear gelatin. it doesn't sound very tasty though.

Definitely take a look at Lilek's Gallery of Regrettable Food. The book is hilarious, and there's more online: http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

10PM Cookery is a personal favorite.

Angels on Horseback: oysters wrapped in bacon

Hollywood Dunk: deviled ham, horseradish, and whipped cream

Potato chips with cottage cheese (my mother said this was big in the 50s)

Konigsberger Klops: little German meatballs with anchovy and lemon sauce

I had a retro housewarming party/pot luck last Fall and the big hit was the Vienna sausages-covered cabbage my friends Cindy and Max prepared, complete with burner to roast the wieners. Swell!

You can check it out (and see the rest of the awesome food) here: http://brickandplastic.blogspot.com/2008/11/swell-time.html

whatever you can stick on a colorful frilled toothpicks, cheese cubes, olives, coldcuts, and for visual hilarity, a candle salad, which is a banana held upright on a pineapple ring with a maraschino cherry flame and maybe has a pineapple ring like a handle for the candle holder all glued together with mayonnaise.

I forgot, lettuce under the pineapple for the candle salad.http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=candle salad&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=KaMpStmDI4

That candle salad looks so dirty. haha

Every Christmas my 92 year old Grandma makes this hideous Jello mold "salad" that is the same mint green color as a 1950's bathroom! I know there's lime jello, blended up cottage cheese, canned fruit cocktail and green olives in it. Perhaps this year I'll get up the nerve to try it!

Don't fret about your place being so small. Remember have fun and keep it simple. Watch out for some of those 50's appetizer because they are not so appetizing.

I am so glad people mentioned Leilek's site. That is always good for a laugh.

I dare you to wear a 50's dress with a white apron.

I would totally do a pineapple upside down cake, and make sure the pineapple and the cherries were all really meticulously arranged.

You could also do a big meatloaf, cut it into tiny two-bite squares, and top with a bit of homemade mashed potatoes/yams/insert whatever root vegetable you want here.

Martinis with olives and pickled onions are a given ;)

I have a great (UK) book Marguerite Patten's recipes from the 50's/ 60's. Nothing looks remotely edible.

50s food had to be finicky.. Half a grapefruit stuck with cheese and pineapple cocktail sticks. Stuffed half tomatos with the cut edges shaped into zig zag patterns.

Roll up sandwich logs are great looking and probably taste lovely from what I remember (white bread...)

pate on melba toast with a gherkin garnish

If you are going to have a pudding, then some kind of brightly coloured mousse in individual wine glasses, topped with a cherry is ideal.

Hope it goes well.

I have a Better Homes & Gardens Jr. Cookbook 1955 that has a recipe for Party-Surprise Sandwiches that I'm sure no 50's party would be without. Here's the recipe, wording shortened by me.

Mix 6 ounces cream cheese with 1/4 cup milk and beat until smooth.

Using a 5 ounce can of chicken, cut into smaller pieces and combine with 2 T mayo.

Chop 12 stuffed olives and add to a 5 ounce jar of pimiento cheese spread.

Remove crusts from 18 slices of bread and butter. Make 6 layered sandwiches:
One slice of bread
Spread with chicken
One slice bread
Spread with cheese
Top with bread

Frost the entire sandwich with cream cheese. Garnish with an olive slice surrounded by water cress leaves to form a flower.

There's also an egg salad sandwich boat in here

Lime Fizz
1/2 cup lime juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups water
2 7 ounce bottles carbonated water.

Serve over ice and garnish with mint sprigs.

For dessert you could always do the bars where you take bread without crusts and slice it into sticks (or else use pound cake). Roll into sweetened condensed milk and then roll to coat with coconut. Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake until coconut is toasted. They show these with homey instead of the milk in this cookbook but we used the milk in home ec class back in the dark ages.

The first thing that came to mind were deviled eggs, followed quickly by my grandmother's Swedish meatballs. She had this chafing dish that would appear at holiday time to keep the meatballs warm. :)

Also anything involving Jell-O. Or Jell-O pudding mix. My family makes something we call Pistachio Fluff with pistachio pudding, Cool Whip, pineapple, and mini-marshmallows. Dot the top with maraschino cherries. :)