Life, 1922-10-05 · page 13 of 36
Life — October 5, 1922 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon shows a hospital scene where a boy wants to visit Willie Smith before his afternoon operation, claiming Smith owes him two cents. The attendant refuses. The lower section, titled "First Knights (Entr'acte in the Smoking Room)," is a theatrical anecdote. The narrator discusses a great actress he met in St. Louis around 1912—likely referring to Ellen Terry or similar stage performer. The speaker brags about discovering her talent and predicting her stardom, while a skeptical listener (marked as "exhale") interjects doubts. The humor derives from the boastful narrator's inflated memory of his role in an actress's success, a common type of self-aggrandizing bar-room conversation that Life magazine frequently mocked.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Hospital Attendant: No, you can’t see Willie Smith. He is going to be operated on this afternoon. Boy: But I’ve got to see him. He owes me two cents. First Knights (Entr’acte in the Smoking Room) ss REATEST actress we got to-day—I met her in St. Looie in 1g—, when she was Willard Mack's wife,* and she said to me, Sig, she said (she always called me Sig), all I'm goanna be in T’e Pr’fession I gotta thank you for—an’ I said, Look here, Girlie, your goanna be a \onderful actress some day; wonderful, mark my words, I said—of course you might not ’a been so fine when I irted to show you as now, but your goin’ great, I said, ‘some day your goanna be the most wonderful actress the world”—(exhale)—“an’ I'll be talkin’ about you ne day to somebody after your first night on Filament \irway just like I’m talkin’ to you boys this minnit.”— thale.) Certainly is a world beater!—juh hear that applause ai the end of th’ act? I picked her up first in Terre Haute ciore I ever make her in Cincinnati—I mean St. Looie he was just goin’ to be married to De Wolf Hopper,* I said to Jake Shubert who was out there with me, Jase, I said, she’s goanna be the greatest actress we got some day,’—(exhale)—“but Jake couldn't see it, an’ she got away from me before I could get around to talk to - her—had a sleeper jump an’ I never see her again till we make Omaha in 19—,—or rather, St. Looie, as I am say- ing.”—(Jnhale.) “Looked like The Duse first time I saw her—Naw, the Duse! the Duse! I ain’t a faro dealer, I'm a press agent! —Then after I got held of her in Cin—in Cin Looie, that is, I had her try out some parts, an’ I saw how good she was, just like I thought—could do everything but fly a kite—reminded me more of Bernhardt than anybody I ever saw—an’ I said, Girlie, I said, Look here, your goanna make Ellen Terry look like she was playin’ bur- lesque, I said—It was not long after that before I got her a little part up in a good No. 3 Company in Hartford,”— (exhale)—“she was engaged to Nat Goodwin at the time*—an’ I got a regular manager to come up an’ take a look at her an’ here she is !”—(J/nhale.) “But you oughta seen what a tramp she was before I got hold of her!” *Does not identify her. (Eprror’s Nore.) IV. D. comicbooks.com