Life, 1929-08-09 · page 25 of 44
Life — August 9, 1929 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains satirical commentary on New York theater and nightlife, likely from the late 1920s. The main targets are theatrical producers **Earl Carroll** and **Florenz Ziegfeld**, who were competing showmen of the era. The satire critiques Carroll's approach to theatrical "art"—specifically, his use of nude dancers on galloping horses in "The Sketch Book," presented as a crude imitation of Ziegfeld's "Whoopee." The author argues that presentation and artistic framing matter; the same content can be acceptable or offensive depending on how it's staged. The "Manhattan Madness" and "Manna-About-Town" sections offer absurdist observations about New York geography, commerce, and social behavior—noting contradictions like buildings with no names, and wealthy people "slumming" in Hoboken behaving worse than local residents. The overall tone mocks both theatrical pretension and high-society hypocrisy during the Jazz Age.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Manhattan Raps-ody It does this old heart good to read the let- ters that have poured into this office (and this time, they really have poured) congrat ulating me on my drive against deliber- ate dirt in the theatre .my only disap- pointment is that one of the letters wasn’t from Grover Whalen | ... evidently many others besides myself feel a bit nauseated at FF, Earl Carroll's idea of humor and the curious | part of it is that ninety per cent of the letters have been from out-of-towners upon whom Mr. Carroll or any other theatrical producer depends for success . one of the letter writers suggests that the theatres adopt the motto “Out of the stenches by Christmas!” Is It Art? \ beautiful example of the difference hetween Mr. Carroll and Mr. Ziegfeld is brought out in their two shows, In “Whoopee” we see six un | draped females descenil }a mountain side upon ponies presenting a very artistic picture... in “The Sketch Book” Mr. Carroll gets a horse on Mr. Zieg- feld by putting his undraped models on galloping steeds! . . . It’s the old army game... it’s all in the way it’s done . . . take the “Moanin’ Low” song in the Little Show which is actually about as rough as anything we've had in the theatre . . . yet nobody objected to it because it was a dramatic thing and handled in an artistic way... in fact, people will seldom take offense at anything bad if it’s presented nicely . they are much more apt to kick at a nice thing done in a bad way! Manhattan Madness South Street is on the east side . . . the Washington Square Clothes shop ts at 30th street and Sixth Avenue ... the Midtown Bank of New York is at 6th Avenue and gth street... . gth street is above 12th street. . . . People are seldom pent up in pent houses. . . most “Roofs” have wonderful “cel- lars? ica: « Manna-About-Town Iltman's store has no name on the front of the building. ... § Stutz car has New York Life 23 no name anywhere on its body .. . Walter Winchell in the Mirror said that Earl Carroll said that the reason Lire knocked his show was because he wouldn't — give them tickets for their ticket serv- ice. . . . Lire’s Ticket Service handled and sold tickets for the “Sketch Book” for two weeks until the \ & show was re- viewed... . the new periscopes for watching golf matches, etc. . . . Leon's on grst_ street ‘ Gardner and Reese at the Lido . . . the tune “Hit The Ceiling”... the story of the dumb bird who tried to cross the Canadian border with a case of beer strapped on his running board . . . he acted so stupidly about it that the Bor- der Patrol confiscated the beer and let him go—with a whole car full of Scotch! ... Christopher Morley’ statement that the society people who went slumming over to Hoboken were bigger roughnecks than the natives and much harder to handle . . . the terri- Me deterioration of the crowds at the S6th street beer gardens. comicbooks.com