Judge — September 2, 1922 — page 14: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page promotes Don Marquis's new play "The Old Soak," showing photographs from the production. The images feature cast members including Harry Beresford as Clem Hawley and Helene Sinnott as Lucy. The quoted line—"Three things I always held by—the old time religion, calomel and straight whiskey"—humorously characterizes the protagonist as someone clinging to old-fashioned values during Prohibition. The play appears to satirize rural American traditionalism and the bootlegging trade (referenced through "Al, the bootlegger"). The comedy likely derives from the clash between the titular "old soak's" moral pretensions and his illegal alcohol consumption, reflecting 1920s anxieties about Prohibition's enforcement and social hypocrisy.