Life, 1913-01-16 · page 22 of 40
Life — January 16, 1913 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **Oscar Hammerstein**, the famous Broadway impresario and lyricist. The dialogue mocks his grandiose ambitions and inflated self-regard. After returning from a disappointing London visit (where he complains the English are "foggy and dull"), Hammerstein boasts of plans to make America "converse in terms of grand opera" through a chain of luxury opera houses—transforming even Chicago's cultural landscape. The satire targets his pretentiousness: his description of his plans uses absurdly stacked superlatives ("Enormously big. Stupendously big. Incredibly big"). The accompanying cartoons provide visual jokes contrasting this grandiosity with ordinary life—one depicts "The Original Song Hit" (primitive), another shows "The Difference," capturing the gap between Hammerstein's operatic vision and everyday reality. The humor lies in deflating the artistic pretensions of a self-important cultural figure through his own boastful words.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
166 On Life’s Wire * ELLO, is that Lire?” “ Lire, at your service. it please?” “ Hammerstein.” “Not Oscar?” “Yes, the indomitable Oscar. see I’m back.” “Yes. Glad you are. How did you leave things over in London?” “Beastly. Those bally Englishmen are just like their climate—foggy and dull. A rummy lot, 1 must say. No appreciation. Cold. Almost clammy.” “Too bad, Oscar. What's the next move?” “T have some big things on hand.” “Big things!” “Very big. Enormously big. Stu- pendously big. Incredibly big. Un- brecedented. Unparalleled. Gigantic. Cyclopean.” “Goodness, how exciting. all about it.” “That's what I called you up for. You know, Lire, that J put New York on the musical map, didn't 1?” “You certainly did. Ever since you left, there has been practically nothing whistled in New York except the aria from Campanilla's Lollipop. Brook- lyn mothers sing their children to sleep with Parsifal and Aida. And Hoboken is just one grand opera after another.” “That's the idea. Well, I’m going to do the same for the entire nation.” “Phew!” “I am going to make the whole Who is. You Tell us THE ORIGINAL SONG HIT PRESSED FOR TIME country converse in terms of grand opera.” “Yes.” “Tam going to uplift it with melo- dy, counterpoint, harmony and dimin- ished sevenths.” “Yes, yes, go on.” “I am going to inoculate it with _ temperament.” “ Temperament.” “And make it blossom like a Mary Garden.” “Heavens, Oscar! That's a big job. Think of doing anything like that to Chicago! How are you going to man- age it?” “ Easiest thing you know. I am go- ing to establish a chain of opera houses de luxe, extending from the pine-clad hills and rock-bound coasts THE DIPFERENCE “T WISH YOU WOULD HURRY UP, JOHN DEAR, IT’S GETTING SO COLD,” comicbooks.com