Judge — April 24, 1920 — page 27: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes early cinema's pretensions to high art. The title mockingly suggests movies lack genuine artistry, and the photos show film actors awkwardly attempting to demonstrate "artistic" skills—painting, sculpting, and drawing—for the camera. The captions highlight the absurdity: actors pause mid-performance to exhibit fake artistic credentials (holding palettes "wrong," borrowing studio props, pretending to carve plaster as marble). The satire targets both Hollywood's social climbing (wanting to appear cultured) and cinema's artificiality generally—audiences are asked to believe transparent fabrications presented as authentic artistry. This reflects 1920s cultural tensions: movies were still considered low entertainment by elites, and the industry fought this perception through elaborate fakery. Judge's satire exposes this desperation as precisely the opposite of genuine artistic credibility.