Life, 1915-12-02 · page 24 of 100
Life — December 2, 1915 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **product advertisement**, not political satire or a cartoon. It promotes the Columbia Grafonola, an early gramophone/record player, positioned as an ideal Christmas gift. The page emphasizes three selling points: superior **tone** (sound quality), **tone control** (ability to adjust audio), and **convenience** (individual record slots and push-button operation). The advertisement appeals to middle-class consumers seeking quality home entertainment technology. There is no satire or political commentary visible. The decorative image at the top appears to be a generic Christmas scene, and the large product photo dominates the lower half. This represents straightforward early 20th-century consumer marketing, highlighting technological features that would have seemed innovative for the era—automatic record changing and tone adjustment controls being notable conveniences for the time. The "Christmas Life" header simply indicates this ran in Life magazine during the holiday shopping season.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“CHRISTMAS LIFE: The three vital features of your Christmas Grafonola of course, your new instrument will be a Columbia, if it is a question of musical quality—of certainty of lasting enjoyment. Judge the superiority of the Columbia Grafonola, first of all, upon its superb tone. Tone. Tone is the soul of music. uch upon the scientific ¢ m the reptoducer needle 10 the end of the tone ch through one wons uninterrupted and e, Once you realize the tone possibilit'es of the Columbia Grafonola, Columbia Records or any other records, we believe you will ied with any tone less ful «true, less brilliant Tone contro With the Columbia you have every your command ‘ie-control leaves, built ¢ cipl controlli nd the wide va all degrees of t¢ Hh pian'ssimo to the + ortissinio to fll the Convenience. afonola, equipped with the indivi us lumbia feature, is ideal in its conve re racked individually. in’ velvet-lined them and protect tl ust breaki push-button controls each rd—a push of the button brings at record forward to be taken between the thumb and fingers. Graphophone (3) Company Box L-270 “Woolworth Bldg., N. Y, icbooks.com