Judge, 1923-02-24 · page 16 of 36
Judge — February 24, 1923 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page reviews **"The Covered Wagon,"** an early Hollywood Western film. The text celebrates the pre-railroad era of American westward expansion, romanticizing wagon trains, gold prospecting, and buffalo herds. The satire is mild: the folksy dialect ("Them were the days") gently mocks Hollywood's nostalgic glorification of frontier life. The reference to buffalo "not merely on nickels" jokes that these animals now exist primarily as images on currency rather than living on the plains. The images show cast members including **Ernest Torrence, Lois Wilson, and Alan Hale** in period costume. This appears to be promotional coverage for a major studio production—*The Covered Wagon* was a significant 1923 film. Judge's tone is affectionate rather than critical, treating the film's romanticization of manifest destiny and frontier adventure as amusing period nostalgia rather than problematic ideology.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Covering ‘“The Covered Wagon’”’ Ernest Torrence and Lois Wilson A GLORIFIED TALE of the Plains in the days before the choo-choo trains made Hollywood what she is Them were the days when wagon-tr: trekked the continent and men burned with the gold fever. When the buffalo romped across the great open spaces and not merely on nickels. Them certainly was the days! Alan Hale and Lois Wilson