Life, 1912-02-22 · page 13 of 44
Life — February 22, 1912 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s *Life* magazine page satirizes a "Fashion Reform League" initiative to costume bestselling authors according to their literary personas. The text mocks this venture as absurd—suggesting prominent writers would be dressed in full view to promote their books. The cartoons illustrate proposed "dance steps" named after literary works and authors: "The Rockefeller Glide and the Comstock Hoochee-Coochee" and "The Nifty Green Dip." These titles blend high-brow literary references with contemporary dance crazes (like the "hoochee-coochee"), creating humor through incongruity. The satire targets both the pretension of literary fashion and the era's commercialization of authors. By pairing serious writers with lowbrow popular dances, *Life* ridicules efforts to make literature entertainment through costumes rather than content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE: All Authors Take Note Life's Fashion Reform League is Now Costuming Literary People According to Their Various Abilities—Classes in Dancing Daily—Railroad Presidents Barred Out WING to concessions which have been made by the city authori- ties, we have obtained permission to erect a few more buildings in Lire Park (formerly Central), and expect now to meet the demands made upon us by literary people who desire to have special costumes made. At present we are making all the creations worn by the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House and the Mayors of some of our largest cities The smaller ones will have to wait We are now designing special cos- tumes for the authors of best sellers, and have opened up branch offices in Indianapolis, where any author may try on his suit in a large glass case provided for the purpose, in full view of the public. It is expected that these suits for best sellers will make a sen- sation everywhere they are seen, min- gling, as they do, a combination of cheap sentiment and action. As one of our prominent authors expressed it yesterday “T have just tried on one of your creations, and it grips me with an in- tensity that compels instant attention from everybody. It is full of human nature, and there is not a dull thread in it. I hate to go to bed at night, be- cause I attract so much attention in the daytime.” We have just received the following interesting letter: Dear Sir: With regard to your costumes for the more prominent literary men and women of the day, I am SOME OF OUR NEW DANCE STEPS THE ROCKEFELLER GLIDE AND THE COMSTOCK HOOCHEE-COOCHFE ONE OF OUR NEWEST DANCES THE HETTY GREEN DIP surprised that you ha not included writers of advertiss ments, Who are, as you must doubt- less know, much greater artists than any mere novelist or poet. The fact that they hide their iden- tity is only a passing incident, and if you are really attempting to por- tray American thought you have now a great opportunity. You should put. the writers of adver- tisements where they belong. The best among them know how to “mingle truth and fiction—not to speak of sentiment—in a way un- equaled among the literary artists of the world. For proof of this T refer you to any section of Amer- ican scenery ; also the daily paper: Let us have proper costumes, therefore, for our ad writers. How to treat the great literary women of America is a problem which we have studied very carefully. We are attempting to embody in a cos- tume the tremendous genius and the world-wide importance of our Ameri- can literary women. One of our latest costumes for a lady novelist, whose book has sold over a hundred thousand copies, is composed of yellow serpents’ scales on a background of solid brass, with Bloomingdale revers. This cos- tume is intended to provide the neu- comicbooks.com