The main illustration in the ad was Thomas Couture’s 1847 painting, The Romans in Their Decline, “depicting one of the shameful orgies that frequently occurred in decadent Rome.”
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The newspapers of the 1920s always presented themselves as paragons of virtue. But they often mixed the vulgar with the intellectual to sell the product.
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A good example was a full-page advertisement in the Vancouver Sun on August 12, 1923 for a Sun-sponsored “Pocket Library” book club.
“Within everyone’s reach, the classics of literature have been collected in the famous Pocket Library,” the ad said. “Read and enjoy the best that the world has produced, at only eight cents a book.”
There were 347 books in the series, including such standards as William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Henry David Thoreau’s Thoughts on Nature, and Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King.
But how did The Sun decide to attract readers? With the giant headline “Orgies of Ancient Rome.”
The headline continued: “The Glorious Empire Hastened Downfall and Are a Sermon Against the Excesses of Modern Society!”
The main illustration in the ad was Thomas Couture’s 1847 painting, The Romans in Their Decline, “depicting one of the shameful orgies that frequently occurred in decadent Rome.”
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Hilariously, there is a giant hand on the left side of the painting, as if it is holding a copy of the painting while it is being photographed. Or maybe it’s a photomontage.
Anyway, bottom right is another photo of a pretty nymph holding a lute. The cut of the photo is “Modern society must beware of the excesses that dragged the Roman Empire into the gutter.”
Harrumph Harrumph.
The newspapers of the 1920s always presented themselves as paragons of virtue. But they often mixed the vulgar with the intellectual to sell the product.
“Victims of the most depraved vices, the rich and powerful Romans were invaded and conquered. What a lesson we are offered in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
“Sex Life in Greece and Rome and The History of Rome are two books that everyone should read. They tell in simple but forceful language of a way of life that undermined the unity and perpetuity of the sacred family group, a way of life that has its counterpart today in the extravagant excesses of so-called society and the appalling growth in the number of divorces.”
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For proof, all he had to do was read the magazine section of the Sunday Sun, which was brimming with stories about the excesses of the rich, the misdeeds of beautiful fashionable girls, and the latest scandals.
“What should be the limit of a husband’s forgiveness?” asked an article in the Sun on August 13, 1922.
“How the love of a young man from Chicago, suddenly put to a shocking test, proved strong enough to overlook the wild night of madness his girlfriend was driven to through a flirtation on the sidewalk, and a famous historical example of even greater generosity for a weak, Wandering Woman.”
The headline of a story in the Sun for December 11, 1921 was “Why Your Ladyship Played Hookey on Broadway. Disarmament diplomacy went across the boards while Lord Burghersh walked the boards with America’s childlike siren.”
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This latest tale is a masterpiece of 1920s junk journalism. It revolves around blue-blooded Briton Vere Anthony Francis St. Clair, aka Lord Burghersh, “Admiral Beatty’s handsome young attache.” A naval hero during World War I, he was nicknamed “London’s ivory bachelor” due to his “Cupid-proof heart.”
At a Disarmament conference in Washington, DC, he ventured to the Maurice Club, “the sparkling rendezvous of society and Bohemia.” At the club he met Leonora Hughes, a “fascinating little American dancer” who became “the lady of his heart”.
Or at least the International Features story claimed. If you look up Lord Burghersh online, he married another blue blood in England the following year, when he became the 14ththe Earl of Westmorland.
International Features was the source of much of the Sunday gossip in the Sun in the 1920s. They sent out packages complete with all sorts of great photos and imaginative designs.
Lord Burhgersh’s package, the Leonora Hughes page, for example, featured individual photos of the beautiful couple, as well as photos of them dancing, though not with each other. But who can object, when the gossip was so juicy?
