Life, 1927-03-24 · page 25 of 38
Life — March 24, 1927 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page reviews Sinclair Lewis's novel *Elmer Gantry* (1927), a scathing critique of Protestant clergy hypocrisy. The text quotes Lewis's mockery of Baptist and Methodist churches as havens for the intellectually mediocre, while Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations fare slightly better in the satirist's hierarchy of competence. The cartoon "Delivering the Milk at the Lighthouse" depicts everyday life with mild humor about routine work. Below, "Cleaning Up" is a joke about Paul, a Hollywood casting director who's grown wealthy by selling confessional magazine stories and publishing a diary—implying he's profiting from exposing others' secrets or fabricating scandalous material. The page also includes "Don't Ask Me Another!"—a trivia game asking readers to identify "three eternal verities." Overall, the content reflects 1920s intellectual skepticism toward organized religion and Hollywood's emerging celebrity culture.
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Life and Letters N “Elmer Gantry” (Harcourt, [ ec Sinclair Lewis takes a crack at the man of God, and gives the Methodists and Baptists of this broad land of the free what H. L. Mencken has for a long time thought should be coming to them. (The book is dedicated to Mr. Mencken, by the way, and how he should review it!) The other de- nominations do not Sy) go scot-free. To Y) wit, quoting one of ‘ the gaudy divinity students: “‘The Baptists and the Methodists have all the numskulls—ex- cept those that be- long to the Catholic Church and the hen- house sects.... There are some intelligent — people in the Episcopal and Congregational Churches, and a few in the Camp- bellite flocks, and they check up on you. Of course all Presbyterians are half-wits, too, but they have a stand- ard doctrine, and they can trap you into a heresy trial. But in the Baptist and Methodist Churches, man! There’s the berth for philosophers like me and_hoot- owls like you, Ed- die!" That will give you some idea of what went on in the freshwater theo- logical] seminary where Elmer Gantry received his train- ing for the Baptist pulpit, which, be- cause of going be- fore graduation on a bust involving considerable _ bur- lesque sermonizing, he was never to oc- cupy. But one Protestant creed was very like an- other to the lascivi- AS \\ 7 Aa WWi&iK WS ee = RY 7 WN WK LK SS SSS CN SL = I Don’t Ask MeAnother! No. § Inquisitive Clara: wuat ARE THE THREE RTER- NAL VeRITIES? (Answer on page 34) Everyday Deeds That Pass Unsung DELIVERING ous, hypocritical Elmer, and his land- ing on both feet in the Methodist fold after dubious years as a drummer for farm implements, a lieutenant of Miss Sharon Falconer (and what a splendid showing-up of women evan- gelists there is in that episode!), a come-on man for a New Thoughtress and divers shady spiritual enterprises of his own, is not at all surprising. His rapid rise in his adopted denom- ination, which ended in a call to a New York church and the chairman- ship of the country’s largest reform (Continued on page 33) THE MILK AT THE LIGHTHOUSE, Cleaning Up “QINCE Paul came back from “ Hollywood he seems to be rolling in money. Did he get it in the movies?” “You might call it that. He worked as a casting director for two weeks, and since then he's sold fifty- two stories to a ‘Confessions’ maga- zine and brought out a diary in fif- teen volumes.” Orr leading industries: 1. Pad- locks. 2. Skeleton keys. comicbooks.com