Life — June 23, 1921 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

fhe Cinema Primer Verses by Robert E. Sherwood the Fans You ask me why the Films are cheap, And why they make an Ar-tist weep, And why they’re all so Far from Pure, And why they Man-gle Lit-’ra-ture, And why they stress, in ev-’ry Reel, The el-e-ment of Sex ap-peal, And why they o-ver-flow with Bunk, And why they’re—in a Word—so Punk, And why they run in such a Rut. ; I'd solve your griev-ous Rid-dles, but A-las—I am no Nec-ro-man-cer— Go ask the Fans, for ¢hey’re the An-swer. Drawings by John Held, Jr. the Critic The Cri-tic sees a Tenth Rate Mo-vie And, though he’d like to dis-ap-prove, he Pro-ceeds to delve in his The-saur-us, And spreads, in bright Ar-ray, before us A Line of Words like “Vast, Tre-men-dous, Un-sur-passed, Su-preme, Stu-pen-dous. It held us Breath-less—Awed—A-ghast,— A per-fect Work of Art at Last.” . And if, per-chance, you'd like to Know Just why he shoots his Face off so, And what in-spires his Gen-u-flec-tions— Con-sult his Ad-ver-ti-sing Sec-tions. “ SURE, PERCY, YE CAN PLAY WITH US— “YE CAN BE A BOLSHEVIK.” comicbooks.com