Life, 1913-09-25 · page 20 of 43
Life — September 25, 1913 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes censorship of theater in early 20th-century New York. The main text criticizes how authorities (Commissioner Waldo, Chief Magistrate McAdoo, police) treated "lurid plays" with leniency—removing offensive content rather than banning them entirely—while claiming to protect public decency. The satire's point: these same officials had previously shut down "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (a Shaw play about prostitution), yet now show restraint toward other controversial productions. Life mocks this inconsistency as reflecting "the power of pull" (political favoritism). The photograph shows the Hippodrome's football ballet—a large chorus line in athletic costume—illustrating the magazine's simultaneous coverage of entertainment. The juxtaposition suggests Life's interest in both theatrical controversy and spectacle. The article's closing cautions people with weak hearts against attending the Hippodrome's new "America" show, likely a gentle joke about its overwhelming scale and sensations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE FOOTBALL BALLET AT THE HIPPODROME A Little Breathing Spell T present writing the lurid plays seem to have had something of a set-back. One of them is still on the boards, but the “punch” that its author put into it has been eliminated by the authoritics, The Ear other one has been taken off pending an extra-judicial, extra-official decision by the grand jury, who, as individuals, saw the play performed before them at a private representation. The police authorities, the District-Attorncy's office and the Board of City Magistrates seem to have accorded to this affront against decency a con- sideration that would not have been granted to the most in- offensive little woman who ever walked New York's streets through sheer necessity. Such is the power of pull. Of course, the mild treatment that has been accorded to the producers and actors is not strange when it is remembered that Commissioner Waldo, instead of raiding the two plays, sent them to Chief Magistrate McAdoo, who had already burned his fingers, when as Police Commissioner he summarily stopped the performances of the innocuous “ Mrs. Warren's Profession", >= >= >< HIS year's Hippodrome show, notice of which has been deferred, confounds the belief that the Hippodrome had exhausted all its possibilities to create new sensations. When the Hippodrome first opened it seemed as though the limit of bigness in effect had been reached. Every year since then it has done something bigger than before, until it seemed as though human imagination and ingenuity could go no further. But here again the world's biggest playhouse bobs up with absolutely new sensations that make New York's blasé audi- ences sit up and be startled. This year’s show is called “ America" and confines itself to scenes on our own continent. Mr. Voegtlin has contrived some effects in a scenic and dramatic way that really surpass his many achievements of the past. Of course, the ballets are on the usual scale of magnitude, and Mr, Klein’s music is adapted to the requirements of the dancers and singers in so big an entertainment. By way of caution, it should be said that persons with weak hearts, or in a delicate condition of health, should not con- comicbooks.com