Judge, 1926-03-20 · page 9 of 36
Judge — March 20, 1926 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Mr. Memo's Marvelous Memory Course" & Related Content This page satirizes mail-order self-improvement scams through fake correspondence. A company sells a "memory course" diploma to Mr. B.R. Tubbs, a union plumber, who complains the course backfired—he's now so forgetful he's losing money and can't remember clients. The ironic punchline: the company forgot to enclose the actual diploma with their congratulatory letter. The accompanying cartoon about an "absent-minded professor" whose daughter forgets her clothes while bathing continues the theme of absent-mindedness as an inherited trait. The "Absent-minded Ballads" section parodies folk songs treating forgetfulness as a comedic subject, with a deliberately confused poem about remembering what one forgot. Overall, the page mocks both dubious self-help marketing and the popular literary/comedic fascination with absent-mindedness as character type.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- Mr. Memo’s Marvelous Memory Course R: We take great pleasure in informing you that you have satisfactorily completed Mr. Memo's Marvelous Memory Course and are now a bond fide graduate. Accept our heartiest congratulations, and wishing you all the success and pros- you will achieve, we enclose herewith your beautiful hand illuminated gilt-edged engraved on finest of parchment diploma. Yours very truly, Mr. Memo’s Marvelous Memory Course Co., Inc. Mr. Memo, Pres. P.S.—We call your attention to t that you forgot to enclose a check with your last lesson. perity we are sure Mr. Course Co., Ine. Memo's Marvelous Memory Mr. Memo, Pres. Dear Sir: I take my pen in hand to tell you that I got your letter about me being a graduate of your Mr. Memo’s Marvelous Memory Course and about the beautiful hand illumi- nated gilt-edged engraved on finest of parchment diploma. Now, Mr. Memo, I tell you right now I’m quit- ting your Mr. Memo’s Marvelous Memory Course and don’t want to be no graduate. I’m not saying, Mr. Memo, your course is not all O. K. for some folks, but for me, Tue ABSENT-MINDED Proressor—Ha, ha. That's a good one! They call me forgetful, and here my own wife passes me on the street and doesn’t know me! Mr. Memo, it’s losing me a lot of money. You see, Mr. Memo, I'm a union plumber. Yours very truly, Mr. B. R. Tubbs. P.S.—You forgot to enclose the diploma, anyway. Jack Shuttleworth AN INHERITED TENDENCY The absent-minded college professor's daughter goes in bathing. Our Absent-minded Ballads N EXT in importance to the mammy +N ballads in American folk songs come the absent-minded ballads. treating chiefly of remembering and forgetting. While the sentiment is alwe very scented, the issue is usually clouded and confusing. We are never quite sure who does the remembering, and who the forgetting, and what itis that is remembered, or. as the case may be. forgotten. In writing such a ballad it is essential that you remember the months with the “r”’ in them for the sake of rhyme no—they’re the oyster months our error. At any rate September, November, December do help. We throw out ember as a suggestion, and, come to think of it, why not member’? Have you heard the latest? “dis- Do You Remember What You Forgot? Do you remember what you forgot? Forget, forgot, forgotten. I'm so unhappy, I’m so what not, For I can’t remember just what you forgot Or whether you ever forgot it or not But you have forgotten, memory’s rotten, Forget, oh, forgot, ah, forgotten. . . G. A, Paravieini you're comicbooks.com