Judge, 1932-06-04 · page 13 of 36
Judge — June 4, 1932 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Hatrack" - Judge Magazine Satire This page contains two distinct pieces: **Top Article & Cartoon**: Ed Spooner's humorous complaint about theater hat racks. The satirical point is straightforward—theaters have notoriously poor hat storage systems. Hats either fall out when seats are raised or get lost entirely. The cartoon shows a salesman pitching an absurdly large rat trap as a "hat rack" solution, mocking both the inadequacy of existing systems and the absurdity of potential "fixes." This reflects early 20th-century theater frustrations before modern coat check systems. **Bottom Cartoon**: A couple sits in what appears to be a lawyer's office (note "LAWYER" sign reversed on wall). The husband complains the wife "even objects to a divorce"—meaning she's so disagreeable that despite their marriage failing, she won't cooperate even with ending it. This satirizes difficult divorce proceedings and incompatible spouses, reflecting contemporary anxieties about marriage dissolution. Both pieces use humor to comment on mundane but genuine social irritations of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JUDGE The Hatracket EXT November I am yoing to the polls and vote for 4 any man who promises to put a good hatrack under every theatre seat. It is sickening and tiring to slide your hat in the rack at the beginning of a performance and then at the end find that there was no rack and that it isn’t someone else’s hat you’ve had your feet on all the time, theatres do have wire racks attached to the der side of the seats, but most of these are carefully rreased and open at both ends so that the hat will slide o the floor whenever the seat is raised to let someone by. The ones that aren't sreased are secured to the seats by flexible springs which release the hat instantly t the very first motion made by the seat occupant such as looking to the right or crossing the fing In New York there is one theatre known to have 1irly reliable hatracks. Hats have been found in them it the end of performances. However the first night uy presented last fall a revolver was fired in the ct and all the male patrons had to go home bare- eaded. It has never been made quite clear just where all those hats went. Only one was ever found, and that was stuck fast by a piece of gum. It wouldn't be quite so bad if theatres only had sta- tionary floors. But the way the floors flow in and out among the seats nowadays, makes hat-retrieving prac- tically impossible. The easiest thing to do when you d your hat gone is to pick up the first one you can yet your hands on and hope it fits. 2D. SPOONER. SOD woz “We simply can’t get along—he even objects to a divorce.” u “LT want a large rat trap for a traveling sal sman per comicbooks.com