Judge, 1927-09-24 · page 12 of 36
Judge — September 24, 1927 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Judging the Stars": Harold Lloyd Caricature This is a satirical cartoon by Mauro Gonzalez mocking silent-film comedian **Harold Lloyd**. The caricature exaggerates his trademark thick-framed glasses and grinning expression. The satire contrasts Lloyd's current wealth and status with his humble earlier career. The text describes him as now a millionaire "aristocrat" who poses briefly for cameras, then relaxes in limousines—a stark reversal from his slapstick days when he personally performed dangerous stunts (like the described scene of running behind a horse for 500 feet) without stunt doubles, all for a single laugh. The joke: Lloyd's financial success has made him lazy and vain. He now worries about his appearance (requesting his nose be drawn straight after an old pie-plate injury), while employing underlings to do real work. The cartoon satirizes how Hollywood wealth transforms working comedians into pampered "institutions," disconnected from the physical labor that made them famous.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE MUIDGING te GARE by Mauro Gonzalez wIVA Comic Colossus And so it came to pass that the great American public sat one Harold Lloyd atop a bundle of money. To the left ladies and gentlemen, we have the four-eyed comedian. Here is another nation. nstitution ! I am watch- ing this youthful monarch go thru his moviesque maneuvers. The extent of his labor is to walk out of a taxicab in front of the Plaza Hotel. He is now being loaded up with baggage by a fashionable fare. A director shouts, ‘Camera! All right, Harold!" And Harold does everything a taxi driver would do. This movie comedian is an aristocrat. His movements and grimaces are one caricature after another. The “gag” has now been photographed. * * * Harold leaves the scene for the comfort of his limousine. The star’s brother begs me draw Harold in the upholstered ele- gance of its interior. He poses. As he sits in opulence I am re- minded of an old picture in which he appeared years ago. He was riding a hack and the bottom fell out. The horse kept running and Harold with feet on the ground had to run to keep up with the horse. He did this for five hundred feet of film to evoke one laugh. There were no doubles then. Now a staff of underlings do the dirty work. He poses for two minutes before the camera and then relaxes in his limousine for an hour. While this Lloyd was once the world’s worst come- dian he is now one of the world’s richest motion picture financiers. A matter of a mere fifteen million dollars or so being his assets. “Make my nose straight,” cau- tions the star as I draw. He points to a bump on his nose. It seems that in the old slapstick days a pie plate hit there at the wrong angle. (Continued on page 25) comicbooks.com