Judge, 1924-12-20 · page 20 of 36
Judge — December 20, 1924 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a Christmas humor page mixing theatrical jokes with social commentary. The main feature, "Nothing Else But" by George Jean Nathan (a prominent theater critic), satirizes the prevalence of sex-themed plays on Broadway. Nathan catalogues thousands of theatrical productions he's attended, all featuring variations of sexual scandal: seduced country girls, hidden lovers, unfaithful wives, and betrayed servants. His exaggerated statistics (8,216 sex plays seen) mock the theater industry's reliance on adultery and seduction as plot devices. The surrounding comic vignettes ridicule various entertainment figures—including a movie actor's dubious claim to have appeared in "The Covered Wagon," and exchanges between police and show-business personalities. The page critiques both Hollywood and Broadway's formulaic storytelling while maintaining the light, sardonic tone appropriate to Judge's satirical mission.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! LAUGHS Sows Hussy—F'm a movie actor. I played in “The Covered Wagon.” Cop—I saw ‘*The Covered ‘agon” but I didn’t see you. “T was inside the wagon.” Jimmie Hussy—Palace Nothing Else But by George Jean Nathan I AM getting tired of sex. In the theater, I mean. It seems that no less than two or three times: a week I land at plays that deal with ¥, > it. This has been going on now for Cop—How old are you? it, “Thig has beet going “Twenty-four! I would about twenty years and I feel that J have beet twenty-oix bit I needa vacation. My bookkeeper spent two years tn Philas tells me that, up to and including last delphia.” night, I have seen exactly 8,216 sex plays. I have seen 129 in which country girls have been led astray by the squire’s nephew; 814 in which lovers have hidden under the bed or in the clothespress when a knock on the door indicated that the husband had come back unexpectedly from Altoona; 693 in which Henri Dela- tour, the shoe manufacturer, has dis- coverad. tht tis wife lias: betrayed him with Raoul Haricot, the young painter; 510 in which the maid has been misled by the son of the house- hold; 87 in which the betrayed . ‘ peasant girl has learned that her Bob Watson and May Vokes in “Annie Dear beau is a cad at heart and has de- clined to marry him; and 445 in ee ; which the stenographer has confessed “Why is getting up at to Stuyvesant Gooseberg that she six o'clock in the morning like a pig's tail?” “Tt’s twirl Hamtree Herrington and Walter Crumbley in “Dizie to Broadway” comicbooks.com