Life, 1913-04-17 · page 31 of 52
Life — April 17, 1913 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not satire or a cartoon**, but rather a straightforward advertisement for the Ohio Electric automobile, presented in *Life* magazine (which was primarily a humor/satire publication but accepted ads). The ad targets affluent women, marketing the car's "double drive" feature—allowing a woman driver to operate the vehicle from either front or rear seat, eliminating the need to sit visibly in the driver's seat like a chauffeur. This reflects early-20th-century class anxieties: wealthy women could maintain appearances of being passengers while actually controlling the vehicle. The advertisement emphasizes luxury, European refinement (invoking Vienna), and exclusivity through "basic patents." The double-drive feature is presented as a social advantage rather than a practical innovation—addressing concerns about a woman's public visibility while driving, a still-novel activity for upper-class women of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
bl The Beautiful == OnlO ELECTRIC The Only Car for the Woman of Refinement Today—and Why EVER again will the woman of fashion, driving alone in her electric, have to sit in the front seat like a chauffeur, uncomfortably conspicuous. ‘The beautiful Ohio Electric, with a double drive from both front and rear seat, makes it possible to drive with a clear view ahead and in privacy at all times, No other manufacturer can offer this double drive, for we hold basic patents, And this feature has already made the old-fashioned single-drive electric entirely out of date. In beauty of line, in luxury of fittings, the Ohio Electric holds a distinctive place. It is of Viennese inspiration; and Vienna, among European capitals, is pre-eminently the home of good taste. Its women are the best gowned, its edifices are the most artistic, its equipages the most superb; and pervading all is the atmosphere of a medieval court, with its centuries of dignity and breeding. ‘The traditions of the Viennese equipage-makers, with generations of royal coach-building behind them, are embodied in this exquisite car. There are Ohio showrooms in practically all large centers. Write for artistic catalog describing the many exclusive features of the Ohio— features that no other electric can offer. The Ohio Electric Car Company, Toledo, Ohio 1505 West Bancroft Street One of the exclusive Ohio Electric double drive models comicbooks.com