Life, 1914-02-19 · page 16 of 40
Life — February 19, 1914 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s-era piece satirizes how cinema has made traditional adventure narratives obsolete. An elderly man tries to impress a boy with tales of African exploration—paddling the Congo, witnessing Victoria Falls, Arctic polar bear hunts—but the boy interrupts each time: "I've seen that at the movie show." The joke critiques both cinema's dominance over lived experience and the boy's passivity. Where an old adventurer once held cultural authority through firsthand stories, movies now deliver the same exotic spectacles instantly, making his adventures seem quaint and secondhand. The bottom cartoons continue this theme: one mocks artificial movie sets ("where do they make de real flowers?"), another shows a poor woman receiving fashionable but impractical charity clothes with slits and sheer panels—useless for actual warmth, but matching trendy movie fashions. Together, the page satirizes how 1920s mass media (film) was reshaping culture, replacing traditional storytelling and practical values with visual spectacle.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
312 “LIFE- Kinemadventure "GOME sit by my side, and listen well,” Said the old, old man to the little lad; “There's many a tale that I can tell Of thrilling adventures that I have had. I mind how I paddled many a mile Where the tide of the mighty Congo flows——” “T know,” said the lad, with a beaming smile, “T've seen that stream at the movie shows.” “T paddled long and I paddled far, And far tramped I o'er the jungle sod, Where wildest spots of Africa are And white man’s foot has but seldom trod. I saw the buffalo plunge and snort In the miry fords of the upper Nile” “Yes,” cried the boy, “I know that sp It's been in the movies quite a whil “And once where the big Zambezi roars, As all of its water, downward hurled, Into a mighty chasm pours, A fall so vast that it shakes the world, I stood amazed as I watched the sight No greater moment I hope to know “Yes,” said the boy, “’Twas just last night I saw those falls at the movie show.” “ WHERE DO DEY MAKE DE REAL FLOWERS, GEORGIE?" “1 HAVE EGGS AS CHEAP AS THIRTY CENTS, MA’AM, BUT 1 WOULDN'T GUARANTEE 'EM"” “WELL, SEND ME A DOZEN, PLEASE. THEY'LL DO TO LEND THE NEIGHBORS” “Ahem!” said the old, old man, “No doubt It would seem impressive to you to learn That I have followed the North Star out To lands where the red auroras burn; Where the world stands wan in the icy air, I have stricken the kingly white bear low——” “Yes,” said the lad, “it’s great up there; I've seen such hunts at the picture show. “Now woe is me!” said the gaffer old, “The world of adventure, with all its scenes, To-day on a reel of film is rolled And flashed to life on the movie screens. My day is past, and it seems no place Save Heaven remains, where they do not go—” “TI saw,” cried the lad, with shining face, “A Heaven film at the movie show.” Dean Collins. Inadequate IRST CHARITY VISITOR: How did you find poor Mrs. Holcomb? Seconn Cuarity Visitor: Nearly frozen. First Cnarity Visitor: Nearly frozen? I thought St Andrew’s Helping Hand Society sent her a lot of clothes? Seconp Cwarity Visitor: It did; and she had them all on—seven peekaboo waists and four slit skirts.