Life, 1911-08-24 · page 19 of 40
Life — August 24, 1911 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page documents *Life* magazine's picture-titling contest. Readers submitted titles for an illustration (shown: two figures in a boat on the Nile, with pyramids visible) depicting timeless romance. The winning title, submitted by Roselle M. Davis of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was "Love Changeth Not; the song new-sung to-day, was old when Nile was young"—suggesting romantic love is eternally unchanged. The contest generated nearly 30,000 submissions across approximately 13,982 entries. The editorial process involved judges independently ranking candidates, then reaching consensus on the winner. Popular alternative titles included "The Same, Yesterday, To-Day and Forever" and "The Old, Old Story," emphasizing similar themes of timelessness and constancy. This reflects *Life's* early 20th-century appeal: combining visual art with reader participation, celebrating sentimental, classical themes about human nature and emotion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- 307 THE WINNING TITLE “LOVE CHANGETH Nc THE SONG NEW-SUNG TO-DAY, WAS OLD WHEN NILE WAS YOUNG THE CONTEST The winning title to the picture in Lire’s Contest was sent in hy ROSELLE M. DAVIS, 356 Futter Avenue, Councu. Biurrs, Iowa. ‘The picture was published in Lire’s issues of Ju and July 27. It was specified that the title should not exceed fifteen words, and that the picture (for contest purposes) would appear only twice. The contest closed on August 7 at noon. Thirteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-two answers were received, and as the contestants almost invariably sent in three titles, the total number of titles received was nearly thirty thousand. 20 The issue of Lire containing the first announcement of ihe contest was on sale on Tuesday, July 18 On Wed- nesday and Thursday a number of replies were received. Friday, July 21, was, however, the first big day, the number of replies on this day being seven hundred and thirteen. From this day to the close of the contest the mail averaged about seven hundred or eight hundred a day; on one day there being over twelve hundred envelopes and the last day over two thousand five hundred. As fast as the titles came in they were arranged in chronological order and were given a preliminary reading, those replies which were obviously not up to the mark being set aside On the day the contest closed, all the possibilities— over one hundred—were set aside, and with these as a basis the editorial staff of Lire went into executive s sion, The winning tithe was then arrived at in the fol- lowing manner. Each judge, independently of the other judges, marked the titles he thought best in the order « their merit. When these decisions had been made they were opened conjointly, and it was found that a consensus ot opinion was in favor of the winning title as published herewith It may interest the readers of Lire to know that when the picture was first conceived neither the one who suj gested the scene or the artist (Mr. Read), who drew the picture, had any idea of a title for it A great many contestants thought of the same titles. Oi these the most popular were: “ The Same, Yesterday, To-Day and Forever,” “ Egyptian Deities.” “ The Old, Old, Old Story,” “The Time, the Place and the Girl” and “ Drifting. Another contest begins in an approaching issue of Live. comicbooks.com