Life, 1921-06-23 · page 25 of 36
Life — June 23, 1921 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon:** This is a satirical jab at early cinema's dramatic excess. It depicts a movie director (shown as a caricatured figure) filming the biblical story of Samson slaying a lion. The director yells "STOP! BRING ON ANOTHER LION, THAT OLD SKATE AIN'T GOT ANY PEP"—mocking how silent-film directors would demand increasingly exaggerated, sensationalized action to satisfy audiences. The title "If There Had Been Movies in Bible Times" suggests that modern filmmaking's focus on spectacle and repetitive thrills would have corrupted even sacred biblical narratives. The humor targets Hollywood's emerging tendency toward over-the-top production values and the director's need to constantly escalate drama, treating even a monumental feat (Samson defeating a lion) as insufficient entertainment without amplification.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ch as, hat ar. WO to- ‘us. It ffective rd bits beyond mption, ugh to tion is ed. Mm our estions Norma n't Ben > forth appall- ith the limited ford is nd that ppetite. is, we ) share public- age of in the agents ‘ite his vod. ALyPst | finest | , Sin ns is in the IF THERE HAD BEEN MOVIES IN BIBLE TIMES Movie Director (as Samson slays the lion): Unpopular Memoranda George Jean Nathan EATHEN NOTE, — Democracy is based upon the theory that William Shakespeare and Samuel Shipman are equals in the cyes of the Lord. Somehow persnade myself that the God we has any such idea. IL. Harris—The otherwise timable Frank Harris is, without © man responsible for the death vuntess X. The Countess X, she was, must have been a vigor- indefatigable woman; she ap- spent her entire life introducing to celebrities in all parts of the But the extraordinary vigor and f the Countess, if we follow the which Harris sets down, could have been equal to the social de- mands made upon her by him—and hence, doubtless, her untimely end. If one is to believe Harris, the good Countess was a sorely rushed woman. On the same day one finds her introducing Harris to Pierre Loti in the latter’s Paris salon, and to the rank parently Harris world, ritality chronicles scarcely AIN'T GOT ANY PEP, Boer General Jan Smuts in his tent on the South Eastern coast of Africa. On another occasion, it is apparent from Harris’ confessions that the Countess, after introducing him at eleven o'clock one morning to the late Czar ‘Nicholas in Re eS as < “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” “you MUST BE GOING SOME PLACE.” “No, I'M Not, I’M COMING BACK.” STOP! BRING ON ANOTHER LION, THAT OLD SKATE Petrograd, was seemingly compelled to make the trip to London by a peculiarly fast acroplane that she might, at three o'clock of the same afternoon, introduce him to the Prince of Wales at a private reception. A good friend, the Countess, and true. Harris must mourn her loss. Harris is the greatest interviewer of dead celebritics that the literary world has known. No celebrity whose table he hasn't graced, whose choicest mot dead was not manufactured in his presence. The moment a famous personage shufiles off the coil, Frank interviews him. And with what a wealth of reminiscent detail, with what an amplitude of hitherto un- related sayings and doings of the eminent deceased! Harris is a great reporter. But one feat yet remains to him. The day he dies he must interview himself. What is more, it is, from the evidence, not beyond his talents. Ill. The Mystery Wave.—The so-called de- tective and mystery fiction wave, now sweeping the country, is not difficult to understand. For years, the public has (Continued on page 923.) comicbooks.com