Judge, 1923-07-21 · page 14 of 36
Judge — July 21, 1923 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This three-panel satirical comic critiques Hollywood's treatment of foreign actresses. The narrative shows: 1. **Top panel**: A European actress with distinctive personality arrives, exciting studio executives who believe she'll revitalize declining American cinema. 2. **Middle panel**: She's handed to a director tasked with making her conform to Hollywood standards (shown as a machine-like process). 3. **Bottom panel**: After the director finishes "improving" her, she becomes indistinguishable from every other Hollywood actress—the "magic" is gone. The satire targets Hollywood's standardization machine: studios acquired talented foreign performers specifically for their uniqueness, then systematized them into generic starlets, destroying what made them valuable. The joke is the paradox of hiring someone *because* they're different, then immediately erasing that difference. This reflects 1920s anxieties about commercialism homogenizing artistic talent.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A European actress astounds the movie world with a distinct and vivid personality. The movie magnates recognize the fact that she is just what is needed to rejuvenate the waning movies in America. I W to| if She is forthwith lured the to these shores and 1 turned over to a di- pic rector who is out to the do “new and better als things” in the pic- ve tures. oe? \ gra ing sau a) bur thu can B all had for pict dut; v mot Z or ¢ 7 film When he has finished oe M with her she is pre- : cisely like every other pres movie actress in Hol- 4 Sym lywood, and the mag- a mi nates (not to mention her s the public) wonder Ja where the magic has hette gone. intel to d him, enm the he ¢ mory folloy Bess comicbooks.com