Life, 1910-06-09 · page 19 of 40
Life — June 9, 1910 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from Life magazine contains theatrical criticism and several satirical cartoons addressing early 20th-century American entertainment and politics. **Main Articles:** The text discusses the dissolution of the "Theatrical Trust"—a monopolistic middleman system controlling theater business—and debates whether American theater is experiencing artistic decline or merely cyclical change. The critic notes audiences favor light farces over serious drama. **Cartoons:** 1. **Top illustration** shows a romantic scene satirizing melodramatic theater dialogue about love and dreams. 2. **"Going to the Polls"** depicts a man in formal attire walking past a rooster, likely satirizing election behavior or political posturing (the meaning is unclear without fuller context). 3. **Bottom cartoon** jokes about false teeth: Griggs questions Underblossom's character for lying; Griggs responds that lying is expected from someone with false teeth—a period joke equating artificial teeth with dishonesty or fakeness. The page reflects turn-of-the-century concerns about theater monopolies, cultural quality, and contains typical satirical humor of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
to be gradual, and as yet there seems to be hardly a beginning. With the recti- fying of the physical faults of the house accomplished, the company’s work will have a better chance to be noted and it will also follow that the audiences will be more critical, At all events the start has been made. From the smouldering ruins of the Theatrical Trust a stench still arises, but the atmosphere is clearing. There seems to be a disposition to put the the- atrical business on a better basis by giv- ing both owners of theatres and pro- ducers of attractions the opportunity to do business with cach other without the intervention of a middleman who insisted on grabbing the profits of both. It re- mains to be seen whether the men in the theatrical business have the back- bone to hang on to their freedom, 1A AA 2 A A Bs OOKING backward, the season shows no pronounced tendency in any particular artistic way. If there has been anything nota- bie it is the continued, apparently . —— increasing, taste of pa The Count: ait! po NOT REFUSE ME, SWEET ANGEL OF MY DREAMS, FOR Y trons of the better-class 2 CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT you theatres for what is light, The Heiress (reflectively): THat’S JUST WMAT | WAS AFRAID OF frivolous and inconsequential as against plays of substantial quality. The farces them. These will all have to be sup. this is true, we may be on the eve of a have had better patronage than the plied with material of some kind. Of revival. merica may not be able to dramas, and the girl-and-music shows variety of entertainment there will be supply it directly, but it may be one of have been as popular as ever. On the no stint. Whether this wholesale de- the products from the “melting pot’ other hand, the standard plays at the velopment on the business side will tend idea exploited in Mr. Zangwili’s play of New Theatre have attracted a class of — to improvement in quality remains to that name. At all events, the time has theatregoers who had largely abandoned be seen. Certainly a freer field and more come to say farewell to the old season the commercial houses, and the revivals of open competition mean opportunity for and look forward with hope to the new the classics at the Academy have proved authors and artists. The davger of the Metcalfe. successful attractions at popular prices. future scems to be that commercial and No one, no matter what his amuse- practical America cannot supply these ment tastes, from Hippodrome to Ibsen, sufficiently competent and in sufficient can say that he has been entirely neg- number lected. Nor is the choice likely to It would not be difficult to draw from be any more restricted in the future. the past season arguments showing that New theatres are going up so rap- we are in a period of artistic de- idly that it is difficult to keep tally of — cadence. Art moves in cycles and, if MEY, YOU WHITE curID, IF You-aLt DON’T STOP SHOOTIN’ DAKK COMPLECTFD PUSSONS 1’SE GWINE TO NAVE THE LAW oN you.” The Inevitable RIGGS: I don’t think much of Un- derblossom. He's a scoundrel, He lies in his teeth. Griccs Why shouldn't he? His GOING TO THE POLLS teeth are false. comicbooks.com