Life, 1921-03-31 · page 6 of 34
Life — March 31, 1921 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top illustration satirizes theatrical mediocrity. The caption shows Mrs. Argyle asking the Butler if he makes salads; he responds that he "creates 'em and orders 'em made, mum"—a pretentious answer. This appears to mock both servants who affect grandiosity and the theater world's tendency to overstate the importance of minor roles. The accompanying article "Merely Players" critiques early 20th-century theater productions where minor actors interpreted their parts too seriously, taking small roles as major artistic statements. The satire targets theatrical vanity—the inflation of minor contributions into self-important performances. The other brief pieces discuss writing, insurance, and political patronage, but the main visual humor centers on class pretension and theatrical self-importance masquerading as artistic creation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Butler: Merely Players OX upon a time a Play was written, for which the Playwright, an Author of considerable ability and widespread fame, designed the Scenery, composed the Music and cast the Parts. In duc time this Play was produced, and would have been a great success had not many of the Actors, with a little more than the usual vanity and temperament of their tribe, halted in the midst of the per- formance to rewrite their respective rdles. Some thought their parts too small, and doubled the length of their speeches. Some thought their parts unsympathetic, and as- sumed characters entirely different to what the Author intended. Actor quar- reled with Actor as to who should play the leads; words led to blows; blows, sometimes to death, Drama degenerated into Melodrama, and Fantasy into Farce. Now, one of the Players, who had helped make over the piece, seeing how poorly the performance proceeded, jumped from the stage into a proscenium box, and hee Mrs, Argile: lounging back in a chair, assumed the role of Critic. “What terrible twaddle!” he yawned. “What is the meaning of it? What is the name of it? Who can be the Author of this awful stuff?” Then he turned to his program to find out. LIFE (it said), A Drama, By THE AUTHOR OF CREATION— Revised and By HIS CRE Cyril B. Egan, The Right Amount “LJOW much life insurance do you think a man ought to carry?” “Enough to keep his family from want, but not so much as to make them utterly impervious to grief.” CLEVER author is one who never asks what they are saying when he is told that everybody is talking about his latest book. DO YOU MAKE SALADS, HOBRS? I CREATES ’EM AND ORDERS ’EM MADE, MUM. It’s Usually That Way USED to think, ere yet I'd wed Priscilla, who is now my wife, That if she took Joe Binks instead Mine surely’d be a ruined life. I used to think, when Pris poured tea, That no more dainty, lovesome sight In all the world could ever be— Nor was I single in my plight. That none but Pris should soothe my brow As I grew old, I often told her. In fact, I think the same way now.® * She's reading this across my shou! der. Baron Ir The Doughboy Last! CARING for the pottcians aml ot masters seems more popular that caring for the doughboys, who did not fight to make America prosperous for everyone but themselves. comicbooks.com