Life, 1915-08-19 · page 4 of 48
Life — August 19, 1915 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main illustration depicts a cherub or cupid figure sitting beside a large owl, with a halo above them both. The caption "That Gibson Secret" references Charles Dana Gibson, the famous illustrator whose "Gibson Girl" defined early 1900s idealized femininity. The text playfully suggests Life magazine is keeping a secret about Gibson—"a wise bird has us under firm control"—implying the owl symbolizes secrecy or wisdom guarding unrevealed information. Below, "That Coupon Opposite" addresses a subscription offer the magazine distances itself from, claiming the business office added it against editorial preference to attract subscribers. This reveals internal magazine tension between commercial and editorial interests. The page is primarily a subscription advertisement for Life magazine at five dollars yearly.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Chat Gibson Secret Will not be revealed this week. We 4 are fairly bursting with it, but a wise / bird has us under firm control. J That Coupon Opposite Is-no work of ours. We do not approve of it. The business office thinks it car attract people to subscribe by forcing us to use it in this page every week. We don’t. As long as the B. O. makes us put it in we shall do all we can to mitigate its baleful influence. Lire is for sale at all news-stands for ten cents, If your dealer is out of it, let us know, Sie Enclosed find One Dol- lar (Canadian $1.13, Foreign $1.26). ‘Send Live for three months to Open only to new subscribers; no sub- 7 scriptions renewed at this rate. f LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York 6 / One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04) comicbooks.com