Judge, 1920-11-13 · page 7 of 32
Judge — November 13, 1920 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "After the Movies" - Judge Magazine Satire This page satirizes working-class women's susceptibility to consumer advertising. Mrs. Bullock, a poor woman eating beans from a newspaper, becomes ecstatic upon discovering a full-page department store advertisement featuring fashionable coats with exotic fabric names ("duvet de laine," "tricotine," "velonde") and mysterious colors ("bison," "faisan," "twilight"). The joke: she's so entranced by these foreign-sounding, aspirational product names that she abandons her meager existence and swims to San Francisco—only to become even more obsessed upon noticing another advertisement for $92.50 dresses, which would have driven her to jump in the ocean immediately. The satire mocks both advertising's manipulative appeal and the desperation of poor women's desire for unattainable luxury goods. The exaggerated silhouette cartoon reinforces the absurdist humor of the narrative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
BLOWED JIGGERYD DAG-BUSTED DARNED daily newspaper of the city of New York. Mrs. Bullock had but to reach out her hand to touch it, but she did not bother to do so. nul she had eaten all the beans did she reach for the paper to wipe her hands. As her eyes fell on the sheet she uttered a ery of jov. The weariness that had been upon her for years fled in an instant. The sheet contained a fulltpage advertisement of a fall garment bargain sale. Before her enthralled eves Mrs. Bul lock saw names of clothes she had Jaine never seen before—duvet de tricotine, yalama cloth. velonde, patinette, chameleon, Bolivia, silver tone, furtex. She saw the names of lors she had never known—bison. walnut, faisan, pinenecidle, twilight, ridium, sparrow. She a style drawing such as she had never seea suv ALO and read: “At $59.75. A ity box i nie coat’ style in) duvet de Taine, 27" $7 9K. Baran Tucked panel down the — back. Baggs—Ns AN EN ERYTHING bse Tucked pockets. In Malay, Nanking and reind o Miss Suf—We tr | covLos’r wate Aprer THE Movirs “Davet de Mrs. Anna Bullock stid $59.75 She scrambled to her feet and hitched her gunny sack laine? A WETTER FILME PLAY THAN THAT.” Malay! Nanking! Tucked pockets!”” Monday at only more firmly over her shoulders “This.” all of this desert iskind 7 Mrs. suid you wom EXPECT TO HAVE THE LAST WORD EN POLITICS. INTEND TO HAVE THEM BEFORE VERY LONG. ALL OF Anna Bullock.” will be about business as far as I am concerned.” Louisa and she walked down to the edge of the great, huge. endless Pacitic Ocean and struck out for North America As the creator of Mrs. Bullock and author of this story Iam compelled to say that she reached San Francisco swimming, in two days. Ii she had turned over the sheet of paper and noticed the “Extradorinary Sale of Autumn Dresses of Tricotine, Satin and Crépe Meteor at the Ex| Low Price of $92.50," she w She would have made it have swum. in one jump