Judge, 1916-03-25 · page 7 of 28
Judge — March 25, 1916 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces about early cinema and urban life: **"The Movie"** is a lengthy essay praising motion pictures as mental escapism—arguing that watching films requires less effort than living, yet provides stimulation and inspiration. It celebrates cinema's ability to captivate audiences through visual spectacle. **"Heaven Forbid!"** (top cartoon) depicts a theater scene where a girl compliments men as "nice," and one man anxiously asks "Who? Me!!"—a joke about male vanity and social awkwardness in public spaces. **"Force of Habit"** satirizes theatergoers' detachment from reality: a lady calls ahead to reserve matinée seats and requests they be "fresh"—treating theater seats as if they were food, suggesting audiences are so habitually passive they've lost touch with how things actually work. **"A Touching Appeal"** shows a concerned man asking a thin acquaintance the cause of his thinness; the answer—"Worry"—becomes circular when asked what he's worrying about: "Getting thin." Together, these pieces mock both cinema's escapist appeal and the mental laziness it encourages in audiences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Girl—They're so nice. The Movie ALK ABOUT the simple lif That's aat_and s and go Sometimes we do a little work, but not too. much. It is much easier to watch it in the pictures, J and it comes to the same thing. Somebody iswork- ing there, and hard, too. The move of the movie is right stimulating. It is so full of inspirati that we almost fool ourselves into believing we were there. That race, that fight, that game, that burglary—why, you have to rub your cyes to wake up; and who wants to wake uy At last the proper massage has been found for human eyes, brains, and nerves. The treatment has come to stay, and we ex- pect to observe during the next decade a race of progressives alive to the greatest possible range of endeavor, from the most natural to the most extraordinary. It is to be re- marked that some of us are likely to forget how the application of this treaiment is through the optic nerve. The sense of sight is all that is necessary for the reception of that which the movie has to offer. Of what it is. We to the movies. HEAVEN You just slip then on under your course we know that we reall our eyes, but with our brai quite another story. We are captured by the specta cle of swift activity, and we are almost intoxicated before we know it. This is, however, nothing more than normal interest, and it persists while time and Icisure hold out. When there is just about the right admixture of drama, realism, catas- trophe, and love's young dream, who shall say that time and Icisure count at all? It takes no wide excursion of the imagination, nor of the calm judg- ment to outline what are possibili- ties of the movie not yet achieved. Some day there will be the proper lapse in’ motility now and then while the story is telling. his will mark a refreshing improvement on the swift and tumultuous speed of the present. Tbe rather monoto- nous technique of the movie is bound to give way in future to a charm hitherto unsuspected. -Tod Chenevix. Force of Habit Lady (calling up for matinée seats) —Please save three in the G row left. And be sure they're fresh! y see not with but that is FORBID! Him—Who? Me!! A Touching Appeal 5. Sty NV S,R.S.V, P..P.D.Q Pa Ichabod —What makes you so infernally thin? Jacques—Worry, old chap, worry. Tchabod-—What on earth are you worrying about ? Jacques —Getting thin. comicbooks.com