Judge, 1923-12-15 · page 10 of 36
Judge — December 15, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Royal Amours and the Civil War This satirical cartoon by Ralph Barton compares theatrical productions with Civil War history. The top panel depicts actress Ethel Barrymore with her co-star Jose Alessandro in "A Royal Fandango" (a romantic play), shown in an intimate romantic scene. The bottom panel caricatures actors in John Drinkwater's "Robert E. Lee" (a serious historical drama), labeling them as Civil War figures like General Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee. The satire juxtaposes frivolous romantic theater against weighty historical drama, mocking how contemporary Broadway productions treat their respective subjects—one as bedroom farce, the other as serious historical reconstruction. The "civil war" reference is double: the actual conflict versus the contrast between entertainment genres popular in 1920s theater.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ROYAL AMOURS AND THE CIVIL WAR by RALPH BARTON ETHEL. BARRYMORE AND HER OWN WILD BULL OF THE PAPAS JOSE ALESSANDRO ALFRED LUNT BURR ASINTOSH DAVID PEEL GEN WINFIELD SCOTT First-night vistas of Miss Barrymore in Zoé Akins’s “A Royal Fandango” at the Plymouth, and of John Drinkwater’s much-talked-of “Robert E. Lee” at the Ritz. 8 comicbooks.com