Judge, 1923-04-07 · page 10 of 36
Judge — April 7, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "New England, Stage-France and France" by Ralph Barton This page reviews theatrical productions, using caricature to satirize American theatrical life. The top cartoon mocks "Icebound," an Owen Davis play about New England virtue, showing exaggerated American characters in a stuffy domestic scene. The title's wordplay ("Stage-France") suggests American theater pretentiously aping French sophistication. The bottom cartoon ridicules "Seventh Heaven," a popular play set in Paris. It depicts actor George Gaul as "Chico, the sewer rat" in absurdly melodramatic terms—rising from a Parisian manhole to rescue a damsel. The exaggerated description ("bulldozed Diane") and crude characterization mock both the plot's implausibility and Americans' romanticized view of France. Barton's satire targets American theater's simultaneous obsession with New England morality and Parisian glamour, presenting both as equally ridiculous.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Mr. Robert Ames as Ben Jordon, and Miss Phyllis Povah as Jane Crosby —not to mention Mr. John Westley as Henry Jordon—doing some very excellent work in Owen Davis’ “Icebound”—a portrait of life in the world’s most virtuous nation. Mlle. Yvonne George, the clever diseuse of | the Greenwich Vil- lage Follies, now con- certing under _ the management of Miss Mr. George Gaul as Chico, the sewer rat, ris- // Valerie Petrie. ing from'a manhole in Forty-second street and Broadway, Paris, France, just in time to save Miss Helen Menken, as bulldozed Diane, from stepping on her forehead—in “Seventh | eaven.” comicbooks.com