The Daily Valdemar No. 46: April 28

Valdemar Andersen, for the satirical magazine Plat'Menagen, 1910.

Today's moment of calm is a cartoon whose premise is now outdated, but it is still a welcome take on a well-known movie scene.

1910 saw one of the most popular Danish movies to date - The Abyss and its "gaucho dance". The present cartoon is a commentary on the dance from that very year. Poul Reumert is equally a square jaw and brain activity limited to his rounded fists. Asta Nielsen is forced to repeat her S-circling from her dancing although no longer erotic in that he has taken a very firm ownership of her.

The premise for the cartoon was to show Poul Reumert having his cake and eating it. 1910 was the year too of a number of women accusing a theatre director of indecency towards them. They remained firmly anonymous especially since it was deemed malicious slander against the "poor man", who stepped down and died within a few months. Today we would fully understand their need to speak up against abuse, while knowing that their careers would be over if they did so in their own name.

Poul Reumert was the vice-chairman of the actors' union speaking out in support of the women that "(...) if a director does as he wishes our theatre world shall become a bottomless pit of moral corruption". Abyss and abyss... Again, today we would keep the two situations strictly apart, but the cartoon is taking his words to the letter as a double portrait of an actor exhibiting his sexuality for fame and name while lecturing about the downfall of morality.