Judge — May 17, 1919 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HEN you were youngster did you ever pos- sess a Peep Show— perhaps in the form of a glistening Easter egg with an orifice at one end through which you peeked enraptured at a world of wonders? If you did, you glimpsed within that magic shell a miniature land scape in the foreground of which were fairies or char y tale standing up enchanted Oh, but it was What’s ters from some nurs paper profiles like stalactites in a cave. enthralling That was your first theatre. The French philosopher, Ber large part of our enjoyment in life i ences and impressions that recreate by subconscious reminiscence the delight of childhood. Each of us, however sophisticated, harks back to a kid self that lives on thrills. Whatever gives us Wonder makes us child-happy. Hence Wonder Shows—of divers kinds for divers kinds of people. Hence the Hippodrome, offering wonde Size and Spectacle and Stunt; Wonder as s as a circus; armies of clowns and Amazons, unning everything, pachyderm tells us that a xperi- s throug! acrobats ov cliques, hoboes and historical persor coming down the backsteps of time. To see these swarms of creatures going meth- odically about their business and keep- ing out of the way of the scenery is in- deed wonderful. To find a sight to match this, one would have to travel to the East three whole blocks and there at six o'clock at the Grand Central Te minal watch the serried acrobatics of the trained commuters, who, though they have no Mr. Burnside to boss them and no scenery to lend color to their exploits, manage to keep moving just the same. For the pampered busines man, seeking relaxation from the ain of keeping up a bluff, there is the Winter Garden Wonder, comprisir visions of —multitudinous comely coryphées, rigged out in ingeniously gaudy com- bien binations of tights, plumes terer of the Rena Lawton Mackaut and draperies, the effect being heightened by — occasional nude knees. Gazing painless- ly, brainlessly, as he puffs his perfecto, the twenty thousand a year man rests his tired nerve, and is a young dog again. Less specialized are the he st of musical comedies which aim to provide Won- der for all sorts and co: ions of sheatret -goers. There is mush and fashions for adolescents, spinsters and wist- ful wives, so that they may have the wonder of secing dreams and dresses come true. The excitement-cravers are gratified with j. jazz by the earful. And mere males are looked out for in the usual manner. Ordinarily in these_keyed-for-all musical shows, the unregenerate male is rationed in the matter of revelry; his modicum is limited for the sake of the squeamish contingent. Mrs. Grundy must be jollied. The innocence of sub- debs and upstate aunts must be preserved, even at the cost of putting a semblance of skirts on the chorus lassies. But since the advent of the shimmie, mush and modesty have been losing ground. Lingerie is at large. au parade that started last year in “Flo- Flo” is still on the march, and may now be viewed at “Tumble In” and “Take It From Me” and (more closely still) at the “Midnight Whirl This year it has developed a certain charm—just as the underwear advertise in the rotogravure sections of the Sunday papers have become less bald and more beautiful, so that today a Reverie ina Union Suit (Henri Schnitzenbe: Yours ‘The trouss nine gallery) is indeed a model. ave mezz Yet rustic moralists ne dt no fear. The parade will pass Flo-Flo’s pink corset is not an en- during wonder. — Like Bolshevism the dress revolution whereby sub- merged underwear came out on top and cons servative, bourgeois suits and dresses were t hed— this topsy-turvy régime is too vis- jonary to last. Reaction will set in and people will get dressed again. The Sans Culottes of the French Revolution eventually obtained trous- ers, and so it will be with the Sans Jupes of Broadway. Meanwhile there is reassurance in the stupendous success of an honest- to-Thespis wonder, “The Jest.”