Judge, 1931-01-24 · page 12 of 36
Judge — January 24, 1931 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Just the Best Time" - Judge Magazine Satire This page contains a humorous short story by Quentin Reynolds satirizing working-class social life and courtship in what appears to be the Prohibition era (references to beer, brandy, Pilsner). **Main narrative satire:** A woman tells her friend "Mamie" about her boyfriend "Jack" (called "Wonder Boy"), who works tending bar at a gentlemen's club. Jack charms a customer named Tony Weis with witty banter about unavailable drinks, impressing him enough to receive fight tickets. **The cartoons** illustrate comic situations: one shows two men fighting violently over money ("alimony"), the other depicts people outside a "Sukiyaki place" (mocking exotic restaurants). **The satire targets:** Working-class pretension, dating culture, boxing matches as entertainment, and the slightly disreputable world of speakeasies and "clubs" that weren't really card-playing establishments. The narrator's breathless, gossipy tone and malapropisms ("Pointsettia," "foaming beaker") parody lower-class speech patterns that 1920s-30s readers found amusing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE Just the Best Time By Quentin Reynolds “W uat’s that. Madamn? You want to buy a Pointsettia? Pul-leeze, Madamn. This is a department store, hot a dog shop.” ... Can you im But Mamie now that she is zine that dumb ercature, Mamie? one I must tell you about last night. Oh, Mamie, I and Jack went out and we had just the best time, And Mamie he practically proposed to me and it won't be long now before I am tripping up the middle aisle and everybody will be whispering, “Ain't they the sweetest looking couple.” But lemme tell you the whole story. You know Jack (who I call my Wonder Boy) has a new ‘position, He is working for the Plumbers and Mechanics Bridge and Whist Club and he meets the most interesting people. It is really not a card playing club at all and why they call it the Mechanics Bridge and Whist Club I do not kn umbers and w. But any how my Jack is tending bar there and a gentleman named Tony comes in and asks for a fos Jack says, “We haven't a single fo: left but how about a nice foaming beaker of Pilsner, or Munchen beer all of which is very good as I just took it off the ship myself... . Yeah off the outside of the ship.” “Well,” this Tony Weis says, “I will have a bowl of sner. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” my Jack s. is all out of the Pilsner. How about a plate of that Munchen?” So they go on clowning like that and naturally this ‘Tony Weis thinks that my Jack is a ball of fire anc matter of fact he is a ball of fire and everybody is crazy about my Jack and as far as I am concerned all other gentlemen are just a lot of eight balls. Well when this gentleman named Tony Weis left that night he left two tickets with Jack for a fight on account of he F “I don’t like to do this, mister—but they'll jail me if I don’t get the « alimony money!” 10 “This must be one of those Sukiyaki places.” happened to be a sport writer. So the fight was last night and luckily my Jack got the night off. WW Mamie it is.the first fight I have ever saw and I am so excited that I swallow my gum. At first I must say Tam embarrassed b cause these fighters don’t hardly wear no clothes at all and I could not help but blush but there is a lot of women there and when I see t why there was no use in blushing no more. The main fight was between a gen tleman named Kid Blotz and another named Battling Parker. Parker had a face which looked like it had just come from the laundry and had been put through a wringing ma chin It looked like someone had been using it for a potato masher. So they start to fight and my goodness but I am scared they will kill each other, Atter two rounds of this the crowd starts to boo and stamp their are they booing for “Bee cream in my coffe “T think it is a him. use this is lousy fight,” the s. vd fight.” I tell Jit then some people in the gallery started to sing: (Continued on page 29) comicbooks.com