Judge, 1925-02-07 · page 18 of 36
Judge — February 7, 1925 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **vaudeville humor and theater criticism** from Judge magazine's entertainment section. **The vaudeville jokes** ("Keith's Vaudeville") are crude one-liners typical of early 20th-century variety theater—one about a woman with a wooden leg using thumbtacks instead of a garter, another conflating taxi-driving experience with romantic knowledge. These represent the lowbrow comedic style of vaudeville acts. **The main criticism** is by theater reviewer George Jean Nathan, discussing the "Chauve Souris" (a famous Russian cabaret revue). Nathan sarcastically notes that critics struggle to write negative reviews of Morris Gest's productions. He positions himself between two extremes: those who enthusiastically praise Gest's work and those who grudgingly tolerate it. The piece satirizes both **uncritical enthusiasm for fashionable theater** and the social pressure on critics to give favorable reviews to prestigious productions. Nathan uses wit to justify his middling assessment of the show.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Keith's Vaudeville Jin—My girl only uses one garter. Toto—How does she keep the other stocking up? “She has a wooden leg and uses thumb tacks.” Carlotta Miles—What do you know about love? Marr—Dlenty! Tdrove a taxi for three years. For Favors Received by George Jean Nathan I tT TAKES a hard-hearted revie to write a bad notice of on Morris t's shows. If don't eve it, consider the p lem that confronts me to-<d. show in question is tl Souris.” There are intelligent’ enough, enthusiastic over Souris.” And the haps not less ir thusiasm approximates that. of an undertaker at a health farm. While there are sev things about the “Chauve Souris” that divert and please me, there are others that leave me somewhat chilly. [thus belong to the group of persons who stand midway between those who throw their hats gleefully into the air whenever Balieff painstakingly mispronounces an English word and those who merely hang around in the washroom between the acts and grunt. Joe Brown and Hal Sk “You were born & losing ground every # comicbooks.com