Judge, 1927-10-29 · page 11 of 36
Judge — October 29, 1927 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Explanation for Modern Readers This page satirizes the 1920s cultural obsession with cigarette smoking as a symbol of sophistication and success. The top story mocks opera singer "Ray Fasola," whose voice deteriorates until he discovers that famous performers—Mary Garden, David Belasco, Scotti, and others named—preserve their talent *through* smoking. After adopting cigarettes, Fasola's voice miraculously returns, and he becomes a star. The satire targets the absurd cigarette advertising claims of the era, which associated smoking with elegance, vocal power, and professional achievement. The story is intentionally ridiculous to expose how ridiculous these marketing claims were. The lower cartoon shows "Civers Garde, Attorney-at-Law"—a play on legal practice—with a caption about wives securing "back-seat drivers licenses," satirizing attempts to regulate women drivers, another 1920s social anxiety. Both pieces mock contemporary cultural anxieties and commercial hype.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
sii ia i i ada JUDGE Basso Obbligato Cigareto time a named ray fasola began to los his mellow tone and when he tried for a high ¢ he made a noise like once upon a singer a teamster and the audience said dear dear fasola is losing his acoustics and vocal cords and poor r. thought his days as an oriole were through and he tried culture and tablets and gargling and lozenges and deep breathing and everything and still when he sang the volga boat- man it sounded as though he was ing someone and when he to knock off a basso obbli- gato they said get the hook get the hook and fasola was taken off and next day he saw signs and saw that mary garden preserved voice her voice with a smudge and david belasco wouldnt hire a singer without nicotine on her index finger and joe caillaux couldnt deliver a lecture unless he was smouldering and_ scotti laid down a smoke screen every time he opened his mouth and nazi- mova thought a good exhaust was the cats and jackie —coogan couldnt say boo without a weed and all that sort of thing end so New source of revenue for the state; forei g wives to secure “back-seat drivers licenses.” S= CIVERS GARD & ATTORNEY-ar- LAW _ “His first case.” ray fasola dashed into the nearest ar store and purchased a deck of cigs and went to the stage door and while he was putting on his wing collar for his act he smoked four and while he was adjusting his tie he smoked six and while he was greasing his hair three and while he was waiting for the balancing seal to get his fish five and his act came and it was now or never and he came out and took a bow and lit one and then he sang the wounded mink from chopping in e flat and oh what mellow tones and oh what volume and how they applauded and shouted and just before the last note a high f sharp ray lit his last cigaret and inhaled right down to his socks and the sharp came out on a billow of smoke and cinders high and clear «ind true and the curtain dropped and they swept up the dead butts and fasola was made oh uncle tapioca thats a dandy fairy story! Jack Civer comicbooks.com