Life, 1925-05-21 · page 7 of 40
Life — May 21, 1925 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes 1920s radio culture and prohibition-era politics. The illustration shows a radio broadcast where Marc Antony (a classical reference) delivers a speech praising the deceased Caius J. Caesar—a fictional funeral oration mimicking Shakespeare's *Julius Caesar*. The satire targets Marc Antony as a Prohibition Enforcement Bureau chief who refuses political advancement to instead fight "evil-doers." The cartoon mocks earnest civic radio programming of the era, where stations broadcast "refined lectures and jazz music" to mass audiences. The accompanying poem "To My Neighbor" ridicules listeners driven to distraction by constant radio broadcasts, particularly romantic songs and news. The humor lies in treating grandiose classical oratory through the mundane lens of 1920s commercial radio.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To My Neighbor L*»’: oh, lady, oh, Turn off that radio, All night and day de® old Radio plays. Songs Corybantic And ballads romantic Are driving me frantic, My head's in a daze. With screcches and speeches and braying and playing, And moaning and groaning, what are the waves saying? New tunes and tunes old as Rosy O'Grady, oh, Lady, oh, lady, oh, Turn off that radio. Lady, oh, lady, oh, Flaxen or shady, ob, Turn off that radio, Throttle that pest. Music delightful Has made my nights frightful. Oh, please don't be spiteful And give me a rest. With singing and ringing and tooting and hooting, Oh, please turn it off or you'll soon hear some shooting. Please, Mrs. Murphy, or Jenkins or Brady, oh, Lady, oh, lady, oh, Please can that radio! *Poetie License 6oo4-M-NY. Newman Levy. Dealer: DON’T YOU WANT A PAIR OF EAR-PHONES WITH YOUR SET? AI voN’T NEED ‘EM. I'MA BACHELOR.” “po YOU BELIEVE THAT JAZZ IS DYING?” “L DON'T KNOW, BUT IT SOUNDS AS IF IT WERE SUFFERING HORRIBLY.” Marc Antony's Oration—A. D. 1925 THE ANNOUNC. ood EV E- ning, radio audience! This is Station SPQR, announcer Publius Glaucus. This evening we think we have suc- ceeded in planning a specially fine pro- gram to present to you. It will be opened by Mr. Mare Antony with an oration over the body of the late Mr. Caius J. Cesar. Mr. Antony is broad- casting direct from the funeral parlors of the Morse O'Leum Sepulture and Embalming Co., Inc., 26 Appian Way, which has engaged the facilities of SPQR each week at this hour to broad- cast its program of refined lectures and jazz music. Mr. Antony. Marc Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen of the radio audience, lend me your ear-phones. It is a great pleas- ure to be able to address over the radio an audi- ence many times larger than I could hope to reach by the unaided sound of my voice. Friends, I come to bury Czsar, not to praise him, And yet I cannot refrain from calling to your attention that in Caius J. Caesar the greeeeat city has lost its foremost, 1 might almost say, its leading citizen. Al- though his friends—I mean his enemies, have called him ambitious, he frequently refused political advance- ment, preferring rather to serve the interests of the people against evil- doers as Chief of the Prohibition Enforcement Bureau than to gain fame for himself in the occupancy of the very highest political office for which he was so admirably fitted. Let us, therefore, follow his example by re- buking next Saturday at the polls the predatory patrician traction interests hy an overwhelming vote for Mare Antony, the candidate of the Plebeian Party and a man who has ever placed the people's interests ahead of his own. I thank you. Tue Announcer; I am sure you have all enjoyed Mr. Antony's stirring address as much as we have here at the studio. And now you will be glad to welcome again on the air the Quirites Jazz Band under the personal direction of Vincentius Lopus, who will open their weekly hour of popular dance selections under the auspices of the Morse O'Leum Sepulture and Em- balming Co., Inc., broadcasting through Station SPQR, with two dance num- bers, “Cross-F Mama” and “Nobody Misses a Boy Named Smith.” Please stand by. Baron Ireland. Doctrine BETTY: Do you believe that story about the stork? Suste: Ob, yes, IT have to. My par- ents don’t know any better. comicbooks.com