Judge, 1926-09-18 · page 10 of 36
Judge — September 18, 1926 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "High Hat" - Judge Magazine Satire This page satirizes 1920s social drinking culture and clubmen's excess. The main article mocks a narrator who breaks his "wagon resolutions" (sobriety pledges) at a Long Island party where cocktails are mandatory before entry—a dig at Prohibition-era speakeasy culture. The accompanying letter from "Van Phelan" humorously critiques a gossip columnist (likely "Junior") who obsesses over cocktail recipes and drinking instead of covering broader social interests. Van suggests the writer lacks Yale/Harvard credentials and urges him to feature varied content like the "watermelon idea" while avoiding pretentious drink names like "Foam of the Rockies." The cartoons below illustrate the drinking-focused party scene and the social circles these pieces describe. The satire targets how Prohibition drove cocktail culture underground into private clubs while wealthy men performed sophistication through exclusive memberships and elaborate mixed drinks—a commentary on the era's hypocrisy and excess.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
v AIG My perfectly good wagon resolu tions were all shot to pieces last week and after you have finished this heartrending tale I know you will sympathize with me no end... .. it seems there was a big party to be given out on Long Island ..... that alone ought to have warned me but having been away from wine, women and song for so long I was caught unawares, so to speak ..... anyway I got all dressed up the Long Island domici Gatsby expec id arrived at with great ations to be confronted in the hall by a very pretty maid with a tray of cocktails . thank you,” I murmured firmly. but politely, and attempted to brush by but was stopped by the butler...... “Sorry, sir, but no one is allowed to pass until they have had three cock- Now what would you ee Sete Here I had trav- eled all the way out to Long Island, and through the doorway I could see a very happy gathering, including some darn pretty girls, so taking a photograph of a young lady sitting on a step out of my pocket, I closed my eyes and kissed it and stepping up to the maid said: “Here's looking Bb You! eo cere now that I think of it I should have sold this story to a Confession Magazine but any wasa great party! ... .Oh, Lalmost forgot... . . It was called a “Pay as you enter party,” but it should have been “Pray.” ay it JUDGE My old) Harvard buddy, Van Phelan, crashed through with a letter this week that. to my mind, is so interesting Fm going to print it, verbatim, whatever that is... . the lad’s got a good idea but the trouble is, the kind of birds you'd want to get into a club like that would be just the ones to kid the life out of it letter. S aareus ane However, here's the eed Dear Junior: Don't take it so to heart! Gosh, mister, I didn’t mean it. Honest mister! Don't ery. TU buy your gol-whang flowers. But all foolin’ aside. Junior, you shouldn't: make your column a bartender’s guide and nothing else. Print a new one each week. That's fine. But when the column is likker and nothing else Honest, haven't you any other in- terest in life? Sure you have. Then let's have it in the column. Look hack at some of your old numbers. N You can tell that funny thing that happened on the party. the. other night. You can get next to all the new fads and fancies before they gel overworke . You've influence enough. Let's have one new idea every week. You know, from your all-absorh- ing interest in likker. 1 would have sworn you were a Yale man until you denied it. You're no Harvard man. ‘That's easy to see. And you're no City Collidge man. You've loo wide a point of view for that. Dainfino what you are, but it makes no never minds to me. And Vin surprised that, in all your formuke. you've never once men- tioned orange peel. Cut it thin, and break it in pieces so as to get the oil, But there 7 go.) Pm as incor- rigible as you. Anyhow, the wa melon idea WAS worth printing. Keep ‘em like that and they're O.K. but this “Foam of the Rockies” and “Maiden’s Delight” and “Dev- i's Draught” stuff—oh, Junior—as I said, it’s enough to ruin a fellow’s stomach, I wonder what George Jean will have to say about the Penny Areade Review! [can't quite picture him doingit. Liked your review, though. And Junior —why don’t you start a High Hat Club. To mean a real honest-to-God one. Branches in every city. Have to be recom- (Continued on page 27) comicbooks.com