Judge, 1925-09-26 · page 19 of 37
Judge — September 26, 1925 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**"The Shows"** is a theatrical review column. The main cartoon depicts a gorilla-like creature emerging from dense foliage, illustrating the idiom "the gorilla"—likely mocking a theatrical production's clumsy, brutish quality. The smaller cartoon "Keiths" shows two men discussing a flask of cider with "ambitions" to work, satirizing either bootleg liquor during Prohibition or theatrical performers' pretensions. The text reviews three Broadway plays with harsh criticism. The reviewer attacks performers M. Reginald Mason and M. Claude King for their listless acting, actress Mlle. Witherspoon for her disengaged delivery, and notably Ruth Gordon for over-performing with excessive "Lanvin" (expensive perfume/styling) to impress the "Algonquinistas" (the sophisticated literary crowd at NYC's Algonquin Hotel). The satire targets theatrical mediocrity, actors' desperation to please elite audiences, and the affectations of New York's cultural establishment circa the 1920s.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
.) ECKVE ZA MRRED Life ‘S jegnet, (Mex LONG WWE / ~y BEEN ov ON IRRIED ¢ 4 Gone 10 Bs a wen? ApMoRRow/” WV the GoRILLY” son, co-author of the e Gompers of the ity Association. As ersinally on the best th him and who is ve him a liberal suck pocket flask on any sions, I bring myself just what he must ik of actors now that what they can do to they try. “The Fall T have hinted, is a ent—it was better it was tinkered with e Stamford tryout— ors engaged by the the Equity Associa- hant it have made it than it is. I have lipsgod performances during these many years I have been or the stone pile, fat I have seldom seen more slipshod than three in this particular exhibi- @ | CZ “WHATS “WAT A AWE RBLask — CIDER7” S\T MAY BE CIDER —BUT (1S AMBITIONS AND NILING To WoRK /“ tion. The M. Reginald Mason, for example, goes at the comedy with all the effervescent sparkle of a two months’ old glass of White Rock. The M. Claude King, who—to be fair—is no more suited to his réle than Mason is to his, backs up the latter in great style and con- tributes to the evening a per- formance that has approximately as much breeziness as a wet flag. And the Mlle. Witherspoon, ,cast for the réle of the foul-minded spinster who poisons the young wife against the male sex, recites her lines as if they were so many distasteful lozenges and as if she would be tickled to death when the show was over. Ruth Gor- don, who was amusing when I eyed the play last spring, got her- self up with so much Lanvin dog on the opening night in New York and tried so desperately to make a big hit with all the Algonquinistas out front that her performance, originally so promis- ing, went to pieces. I am sorry that I can’t give John and Anita a better notice. They are charming people and I like them a lot. 0 “(Pune SeA Woman” is a cheap melodrama by Willard Rob- ertson who once wrote a pretty good one called “Big Game” in collaboration with Kilbourn Gor- don. His present effort, however, is a noisy dooflickus confected chiefly, one suspects, in order to (Continued on page 26) comicbooks.com