Life, 1921-04-14 · page 23 of 36
Life — April 14, 1921 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s satire by Robert E. Sherwood and John Held Jr. mocks silent film stock characters and plots. "The Villain" depicts the aristocratic seducer—top-hatted, evil-leering villain who corrupts innocent women before the heroic "blue-chinned" protagonist defeats him. The verse ridicules this formulaic villain archetype as merely "celluloid," empty artifice. "The Vampire" references the popular "vamp" character type (likely alluding to Theda Bara's famous role), where a scheming woman manipulates a foolish man for profit and fame. The satire's point: Hollywood churns out predictable melodramas where villains and vamps exploit naive characters, yet audiences treat these cardboard archetypes seriously. The bottom comic strip titled "The Way of the Transgressor is Hard" shows physical comedy consequences—slapstick punishment for misconduct, reinforcing cinema's moralistic but simplistic narratives.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
April t4 fhe Cinema Primer to Verses by Robert E. Sherwood Drawings by John Held, Jr. ‘ paennes ee ZZ fheV Villain the Vampire The Vil-lain earns our Hiss, for he A Fool there was, and he paid his Coin Is of the Ar-i-stoc-ra-cy. To a dark-eyed Dame, from the Ten-der-loin. __|He wears Silk Hats, and Evil Leers; He took her out to a West Coast Town, He goes to Clubs, and drinks straight Beers; Dressed her up in a Form-fit Gown, He plays Rou-lette, and stays out Late— Filled her Eyes with Bel-la~Don-na, In fact, a base Li-cen-ti-ate. And said, “Now, Kid, for-get your Hon-na, He gets the Mai-den in his power For, Hence-forth, you’re a scar-let Scamp— And wrest-les with her for an Hour, A reg-u-lar, red-lipped, black-souled Vamp.” ~ |But when the He-ro heaves in view, She signed his Con-tract, for she was Meek, The blue-chinned Vil-lain gets his due. He made her Fa-mous with-in a Week; So, if you see his Films, don’t hol-ler— And when I tell you his Pro-fits, you’ll They’re Cell-u-loid, just like his Collar. A-gree that, per-haps, he wasn’t a Fool. , OF THE TRANSGRESSOR THE WAY comicbooks.com