Life, 1927-06-16 · page 6 of 34
Life — June 16, 1927 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Section:** Five caricatured faces labeled "Lon Chaney Poses for a Passport Photo." Lon Chaney was a famous silent-film actor known for grotesque makeup and character transformations. The joke satirizes his extreme range—these exaggerated expressions suggest that his face-morphing abilities make him suitable material for a passport photo identification, humorously implying his features are so malleable he could impersonate anyone. **Main Content:** Two pieces critique silent cinema: "The Silent Drama" is a poem about attending an overhyped film, and "He Simply Had to Do It" recounts a husband whose film-obsessed wife narrated an entire movie's plot, spoiling it completely. **Bottom Cartoon:** Depicts a nurse-turned-film-director showing twins to a movie director as a "perfect double exposure"—satirizing both Hollywood's technical jargon and the era's casual conflation of real life with cinema.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lon Chaney Poses for a Passport Photo The Silent Drama Y costly seat reserved for the one showing They gave each evening, I went forth to view The picture all had eulogized as true To life—a brilliant proof that films were growing. Soft crimson velvet was my seat. I settled Cozily down and watched the silver screen Portraying news events in scene on scene Of all the active world. Although this nettled Me faintly, I remained bright-eyed and eager, Knowing it would not linger long: and then The curtain rose upon a fairy glen Where twenty fragile maidens, clothed in meager Flutters of gauze, tripped up and down the platform In ballet fashion. After they had done, The screen came down. At last! But, no; a one- Part comedy was shown, where some one’s fat form Was smacked and walloped roundly. When it ended An aria from “Faust” was sung. Then came An acted preface to the film...whose name I do not know, for it was then I wended My broken way into the street. Nay, Trilby, You cannot tell me that the film was worth A three-hour wait: you but excite my mirth. There was no picture there! There never will be! Simonetta, He Simply Had to Do It KNEW she was a sub-title reader when I married her, Your Honor; but she was young, I loved her, and I imagined I could cure her. But it was not long before she showed symptoms of telling the stories of other movies she had seen while we were watching a film. I was kind to her, gav r the best of care, even offered to send her to a sanitarium; but she refused all efforts to aid her, and one night after we had returned from a movie, she began to tell me the story of the book on which the film had been based, explaining what changes had been made. And so, of course, I killed her.” “Defendant dismissed with the thanks of the Court! Call the next case!" McC. H. OW that $25,000 has been offered for a non-stop flight to Hawaii it seems the country has gone hopping mad. Trained Nurse (to movie director): 11's TWINS, SIR—A PERFECT DOUBLE EXPOSURE. comicbooks.com