Judge, 1922-09-23 · page 10 of 36
Judge — September 23, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Judge Magazine: "Please Pass the Laurel!" This page awards satirical "laurels" (honors) to two entertainers: **Marie Tempest** (upper right): A stage actress praised for her performance in "The Serpent's Tooth," a play. The satire mocks her talent by suggesting she has made Shakespeare's famous line "The Play's the Thing" seem irrelevant—her personality overshadows the dramatic text itself. **Robert Flaherty** (lower left): A filmmaker whose documentary "Nanook of the North" (about Arctic Inuit life) was apparently popular. The satire ridicules the film's influence, joking that audiences now view the Arctic as a practical solution to American urban overcrowding, when it actually depicts extreme living conditions. Both entries use exaggerated praise to mock contemporary celebrity culture and the outsized influence of stage and film entertainers on public imagination. The "laurel" is ironic recognition of their cultural impact, whether deserved or not.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Please Pass the Laurel! O the perennial favorite, Miss Marie Tempest, who is at present so successfully filling the “Serpent's Tooth” and whose dazzling person- ality and large gallery of brilliant stage portraits have discredited Mr. William Shakespeare’s “The Play's the Thing” TO Robert Flaherty, the mighty conqueror } of the blubbering walrus; the man who taught the seal the circus tricks, and whose pictures of igloo building in “Nanook of the North” have firmly settled the Arctic as the logical suburb for overcrowded home conditions in American cities Photo by AKNOLD GENTHE