Life, 1912-05-23 · page 44 of 44
Life — May 23, 1912 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward advertisement for Williams' shaving products, appearing in *Life* magazine's May 23, 1912 issue. The page advertises the "Holder Top Shaving Stick," a grooming product innovation. The image shows a man's hand holding the shaving stick with its nickeled cap, demonstrating the key selling point: users can grip it firmly down to the last fraction of an inch without their fingers touching the soap itself. The ad emphasizes three product variants (shaving stick in hinged-cover box, the new holder-top version, and shaving powder) and highlights the "peculiar creamine lather" quality that allegedly made Williams' soaps "always the first choice of discriminating men." This reflects early 20th-century advertising conventions: product innovation, hygiene concerns, and appeals to masculine refinement. The offer of a trial sample for cents in stamps was typical marketing of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
May 23 1912 Williams’ Holder Top Shaving Stick comes pretty near perfection. It not only has the quality that has made Williams’ Shaving Stick in the Hinged- cover Box so popular, but the added convenience of the Holder Top. Your fingers do not touch the Soap. By the nickeled Williams’ Shaving Stick in th “Gs cap in which the stick is fastened, you can hold it as firmly when used down to the last fraction of an inch, as at first. That peculiar creamine lather, the softening, soothing the face, illiams? x Soaps, have made them always the first choice of discriminating men. Three forms of the same good quality: Williams’ Shaving Stick, fastie Williams’ Holder Top Shaving Stick Williams’ Shaving Powder, Sasisvst A trial sample of cither sent for ¢ cents in stamps ms Co., Dept. A, Glastonbury, Conn. comicbooks.com