Judge, 1918-08-31 · page 23 of 32
Judge — August 31, 1918 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page collects humorous quotations from Broadway productions. The top shows waiters serving at what appears to be an upscale restaurant or theater establishment. The jokes mock wartime economic conditions and profiteering. In "Why Worry," characters dropping food (olives, butter, chicken) joke about carelessness. In "The Passing Show," a character named Sammy—identified as a government telegraph operator—complains of having only "thirty-three cents" worth of energy, then adds "the war tax," satirizing how wartime taxes inflated prices on everything, even metaphorically. The final joke compares violinist Mischa Elman's four-thousand-dollar performance fee to a harp, with an ethnic Yiddish-inflected voice (indicated by "Oi oi! Dot's") expressing shock at the cost per string. This mocks both classical musicians' inflated salaries and likely reflects xenophobic attitudes toward immigrant performers during the WWI era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Diana (Allen), Goddess of Night, according to Zieg- feld mythology. At any rate She's inthe Midnight Frolic. From “Wuy Worry’ Rasukixp: Stop hitting my el- bow. Already dropped three olives. Dusix: Did / make olives rou Say, November! November: Nu, what now? Dusix: On the stairs coming up I lost a butter. Bring it up with you next time Marcouws: And I dropped some Maryland chicken. From “Tue Passinc Snow” Samay (one of the prizes acquired by the Government when it took over the telegraph systems): Oh, gee! I feel like thirty- three cents. Girts: You mean thirty cents. Samay: Sure, but I added the war tax. From “THe Passinc Snow” “Say, Galli-Cur- ci, you make lots of money, don’t you? “Yes, but Mischa Elman gets four thousand dollars a performance.” “For playing a violin? Oi oi! Dot’s a thousand dollars a string! Why don’t he play a harp!” comicbooks.com