Life, 1923-05-31 · page 22 of 37
Life — May 31, 1923 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous essay by Will Rogers comparing American theater unfavorably to Russian theater, which was fashionable among critics in the 1920s. Rogers argues Americans made a strategic error by performing in English—if they'd used Russian, audiences would find them impressive simply because they wouldn't understand the dialogue. He sarcastically credits Russian actors with originality despite doing identical work to American performers (like Florenz Ziegfeld's chorus girls). The bottom cartoon satirizes industrial salesmen pitching labor-saving machines: the salesman claims nine workers are "released for other work," which the prospect shrewdly recognizes means building more machines—an endless cycle of manufacturing for manufacturing's sake, mocking unchecked mechanization and productivity propaganda of the era. Rogers's point: American theater suffers not from poor acting but from misguided cultural deference to Russian trends and underpricing performances.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Mistakes American Actors Have Made By Will Rogers LL you read nowadays about the Theatre is about Russian Actors, Now the other night I saw a show given by all American Actors, and it wasent bad at all, Of course I am no critic but they pleased me, Of course there was no art connected with it but the Cusses were rather amusing, *K * I can’t understand why it is that a Country that can compete with any other Country in the World on everything else should be so far behind in acting. I tell you what I think its the language, I think American Actors have made a big mistake by letting people know what they were saying on the Stage, If American acting had been done all these years in the Russian language people would have thought they were wonderful. * ee The Critics rave over their mob Scenes, they say every member of even the mob on the stage knows just what he or she is doing, Well I claim Ziegfeld does the same thing, did you ever see a Ziegfeld Chorus of perhaps 100 Girls on the stage. Well every one of those Girls knows what she is doing, she knows just who she is looking at and how much he has got, No Russian in the world has it on her, Of course the Critics never noticed that in our. Show for the Girls never noticed the Critics, They can always pay for their own meals by themselves. They also say the Russians are great because they have played the same part for years, I thought the longer you did a thing the more stale you got in it, but look at the jokes we tell in Musical Comedy and the dances that the same Girls have been doing for years, still we get no credit for doing them for years, The best acting I saw in a Russian play was by the audience each trying to make the other believe he knew what the Actors were saying on the stage, eK Of course I am not taking anything away from the Russians they are great but lets dont make a heel out of our actors to do it, Then dont forget that Morris Guest as a showman, He could take a Turk- ish troop to Greece and sell out’ with it, the Greeks would say why its those Turks. they will cut your heads off, but Guest would explain “Yes but they do it so artistically you wouldent notice it.” Then we have charged too little, charge 5 Dollars and the fel- low you get in at that price dont know any better, if he did he wouldent pay 5 dollars, but dont let the one or two dollar fellow in he will tell you how good your troop is. * * * So if you want to know what is the matter with the American Theatre of today you have played it in the wrong language and you have let in the cheap fel- low who knew what you were doing. Go-Getter Salesman: Yes, sir; by using one of our machines we release nine men for other work. Doubtful Prospect: What other work? “Why, making more machines.” comicbooks.com