Life, 1923-02-01 · page 17 of 40
Life — February 1, 1923 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes early 20th-century Broadway theater and its competing producer-showmen. A small figure (likely representing theatrical talent or "the Character") is being pursued by five flamboyant producers, each offering increasingly absurd stage roles: - **Daniel Boone Batt** pitches a mystery farce featuring an ornate bed - **Nimrod Jones** promises misery and disease ("Annie's Twisted") - **Hiawatha** (appearing to reference vaudeville's exoticism) offers burlesque with minimal costumes - **Orion Don** promotes a Prohibition-era "problem play" with synthetic rum - Each promises exploitation dressed as artistic opportunity The character's desperate refrain—"I'd just as leave have the whole thing dropped"—captures the satire's point: Broadway producers cynically manufacture sensationalism (sex, violence, topical controversy) while claiming artistic merit. The "monkey" caption suggests these pitches are circus acts, not legitimate theater. This mocks 1920s theater's commercialism versus actual artistry.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Monkey: I'd just as leave have the whole thing dropped. die—lonely and degraded. But you will never go to work: you will suf- fer any shame—endure any humilia- tion rather than work. Every night we will shake dice to see whether we shall play the last act first, or the first act last. Will not that be beau- tiful? At this moment the pounding of hoofs is heard and Daniel Boone Batt dashes into the foreground. He is not mounted on a horse, however; his steed is a spirited four-poster bed, decked with most enticing lace and seductive trappings. Controlling the prancing of this restive palfrey, he appeals to the Character. Danie, Boone Batt: Come with me, little one. You will act in an atmosphere of fright and mystery. Strange hands will clutch at you out of the solid wall. Blood will drip on you from the electric lights, or better still, I will use you in my new farce, “Why Men Never Go Home.” — See this lovely bed. It shall be yours. CHARACTER: But I’m not sleepy. Dantet Boone Batt: In my plays beds are not made for sleep, little one, Another hunter forces his way to the captive—Nimrod Jones, daring, intense, with somber eyes always seeking to peer Beyond the Horizon. Nimrop: Leave these folk and come with me. I wilk put you in my new play, “Annie’s Twisted.” I will plunge you in misery and I will let you talk about it for hours and hours and hours. Sometimes it will seem even longer. You shall use words that will draw howls of anguish from the Censor. As an especial favor I will endow you with a loathsome disease and nightly you shall die an igno- minious death to the throbbing of the tom-tom. Hiawatha Undies _ interrupts— dragging a show case full of silken garments, he eagerly approaches the Character. HiawaTHA: Oh, come with me, pretty crea- ture, and let me put you in my play, “Dirty Garters.” See this wonderful combination—you shall wear it; these hose—you shall lose them; this chemise—you shall find it. Your costume for the last act shall be only a pocket handkerchief. In this play I hold the record for undressed la- \ dies. It is sure to be suppressed— think of the Glory. The mellow strains of “How Dry I am” precede Orion Don, who emerges from behind a column, roll- ing a puncheon of rum (synthetic). OmNEs: Al's here! Don: Fair One, I want you for my new play, “The Old Joke.” It isn’t really a joke, but a problem play— the problem being “Why Is Prohi- bition and If So—When?” Every time Volstead hears the title he turns over in his political grave. Your duet with the parrot, “Yo ho ho and a bottle of Moonshine,” will make the whole town thirsty. Cuaracter (feebly): But none of these things sounds like Art. There is a loud fanfare of pub- licity and the other hunters are thrust aside by the Mightiest of them all, David Crockett Fillum. He is preceded by Houris, in Mack Sen- nett bathing suits, strewing adulation” in his path, and in his train are many (Continued on page 29) comicbooks.com