Judge, 1925-01-31 · page 18 of 36
Judge — January 31, 1925 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes New York theater architecture and the absurd waste of resources. The main article (left) mocks the construction of the Belmont Theater, describing how after the Vanderbilt Theater was built, leftover building materials—plaster, cement, boards—were repurposed to construct an impossibly tiny theater "so intimate" it rivals a Pullman train berth in size. Nathan compares its dimensions unfavorably to a crossword puzzle. The cartoons and theatrical quotes (right) illustrate Broadway's frivolous culture: actresses displayed as decorative objects, and dialogue emphasizing women's appearances in barbershops and whether props are "artificial" enough. The satire targets both architectural wastefulness and the theater industry's superficiality—constructing cramped venues from leftover materials while obsessing over beauty and artifice rather than substance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SRR ne st i a | | | The Gross Schauspielhaus by George Jean Nathan I NE stury goes that after the Vanderbilt Theater was built the owners found that they had left over three bags of plaster, two bags of hoards, a small strip of rs and didn’t to do with them. After “There are so many women in the barber considerable meditation, in which the shops now that the Police Gazette has started idea of utilizing th ery page.” A gross of to construct a an embre room-and-bath apartment was dis- carded on the ground that there were Fred Allen in “Greenwich Village Follies” not enough ma wners finally and build And, in du cement, two t rials for the purpose, ded to take them au theater. This they did. the three bags of of plaster, seven net and gross of chairs, augmented candescent lights, a por! to be used a urtain and a package of lily what is known as the Belmont Theater. The Belmont onally across th by a few in. ater, situated diag. street from the vit, is a theater in the degree that a Pullman berth is the Yale Bowl. Tt and the Punch and Judy could be placed together in such a playhouse as the New Amsterdam or Knickerbocker without taking up much more room than the late Diamond Jim Brady. About the size of the puzzle, it is so intimate that if you whisper to the girl sitting next to you Led and Tom Niekey—Kei “TL hnow a town wher of sugar, two pounds and a quart of whisky f “Gee! That must bet © crossword Ay v “Quarantine™ “Heavens! Wont : T have wh: Pauline Lord and Richard Bennett in “They i / é heating.” Knew What They Wanted” “Aren't those pretty? re almost beautiful enough to be artificial! comicbooks.com