Judge, 1924-12-13 · page 12 of 36
Judge — December 13, 1924 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Laughs from the Stage" - Judge Magazine Page Analysis This page combines theatrical reviews with vaudeville humor. The top section showcases comedy bits from popular stage shows: "Madame Pompadour" (featuring actors Oscar Figman and Louis Harrison) and performances from Keith's and the Greenwich Village Follies, presenting simple joke exchanges meant to elicit laughs. The main content is George Jean Nathan's sardonic theater criticism of "The Box Office Quartet," specifically reviewing Cosmo Hamilton's play "Parasites." Nathan mocks Hamilton's formulaic comedies—setting them in wealthy locales (doggy resorts, boudoirs), populated with wealthy stereotypes discussing polo and pearls, and following predictable seduction-to-marriage plots. Nathan's tone is dismissive, suggesting Hamilton's plays are so repetitive and predictable that critics need only read the opening to accurately predict the entire ending. This represents typical Judge satire: theatrical insider commentary on predictable commercial entertainment formulas.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Oscar Figman ana. Louis Harri- son in “Madame Pompadour” “This is a very dangerous place.” “Don't worry. They won't harm a hair of your head!” The Box Office Quartet by George Jean Nathan I “ ARASITES,” the first member of the box office quartet, is by Cosmo Hamilton. That should be a suffi- cient description of the play, for the suave Cosmo's plays are as alike as so many herring. The first act, laid in a very doggy resort, may be relied on to present us with a super-tony assortment of dogs who do much airy talking about polo, bridge, New- port, strings of pearls, cocktails and gay Paree, and who, whenever they get an off minute from ordering something or other Shoat Heron “I want to make some ice water and I haven't any ice.” “Peel some onions and that will make your eyes water.” —Keith’s “The doctor said to eat chicken broth and keep out of the night air.” “You can’t do that!” Moran and Mack—Greenwich Vil- lage Follies. PAPE from one of the seventeen butlers, approach the footlights and nonchalantly hand out what the elegant Cosmo fondly imagines to be an epigram. The second act passes in the boudoir of the heroine and consists largely of an attempt on the part of the handsome leading man to seduce her. In the last act the attempt at seduction is duly converted into a proposal of marriage, the leading man having learned during the intermission that the heroine isn’t that kind of girl and being exceedingly contrite about it. T have got so that I am able to leave one of the debonair Cosmo's masterpie at the third epigram in the complete certainty that I can write of all that follows without (Continued on page 28) comicbooks.com