Playful Night at the Gatsby Gala

The retro night of 1920s-era amusement took place at the McDonald Mansion.

Tatiana Argenal, left, Liza Nichayeva and Amanda Muller during the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Sonoma County Gatsby Gala at the McDonald Mansion, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 21, 2013. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

Flappers’ gowns rippled and the chrome on ostentatiously elegant, pre-Depression automobiles shone on the manicured grounds of Santa Rosa’s grandest old estate for the Gatsby Gala.

It was a playful, retro night of amusement and a social triumph for the sponsoring Sonoma County chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The owners of McDonald Avenue’s exquisite Mableton, or McDonald Mansion, dressed in their 1920s best and greeted the Sept. 21 gala’s 150 guests. Bartenders from Stark’s Steakhouse and Jackson’s Bar and Oven poured modern interpretations of Prohibition-era, perfectly chilled contraband.

After dinner came timeless lemon-chiffon cake and music, which drew guests onto the dance floor and back to a fleetingly gilded age.