Judge, 1925-06-20 · page 11 of 36
Judge — June 20, 1925 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This page satirizes the commercialization of a "bathing beauty" parade—likely the famous Miss America pageant or similar 1920s spectacle. The top cartoon shows a magazine editor demanding "snow in that background" for a Christmas cover, exposing how these events were artificially staged productions rather than authentic celebrations. The "Line-up" section mockingly lists who benefits from the parade: entertainment moguls (Mack Sennett, Flo Ziegfeld, Cecil DeMille), cosmetics and perfume manufacturers, and chambers of commerce from resort towns. The joke identifies 1,400 "luscious" bathing beauties, implying they're interchangeable products. The reference to "John Roach Straton and John S. Sumner (blindfolded)" suggests morality crusaders were willfully ignoring the commercialized sexuality on display—they claim to oppose such spectacles while remaining blind to their prevalence. The cartoons criticize how bathing beauty pageants were corporate marketing tools dressed up as wholesome entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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