Life, 1915-12-09 · page 4 of 48
Life — December 9, 1915 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising content**, not satire or political commentary. It advertises the "Aeolian-Vocalion" phonograph as a Christmas gift. The illustration shows a domestic scene with well-dressed women and a man in formal attire, establishing an aspirational, upper-class setting. The accompanying text presents a husband's rationale for buying this "wonderful inclusive gift" for his wife—framing the phonograph as enabling shared musical enjoyment without effort. The pitch emphasizes the phonograph's modern sophistication and emotional appeal: it promises access to both classical and popular music ("breezy and modern"), positioning the device as a gateway to shared family memories and romantic moments ("shining days when our hearts were young"). This reflects early 20th-century consumer culture targeting affluent households, using sentiment and modernity as marketing strategies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“—And the feeling which we press into that music seems to come from our very soul itself.” My Wonderful Inclusive Gift -the one / will make to my wife “TT WANT to make a gift to my wife this Christmas and I have a wonderful gift in mind. For while it will be hers, it will yet be a gift to a// in our little home circle. “It will be a gift of music which we can share—of music grave or gay, popular or classical—of music which can be played with- out an effort on our part, or yet which we can play ourselves, the first time we try, with every deep, emotional joy which self-expres- sion means. “For my sixteen year old girl Helen it means perhaps ‘Mother Machree,’ ‘Some- where a Voice is Calling,’ and many, many other beauties of pure and gentle melody. For Mary, who is older, it means ‘Musetta’s Waltz’ from ‘Boheme’, Tosti’s ‘Good Bye’ or any among the countless creations which are classical and yet tempered to general taste. For my son it means ‘Hello, Frisco,’ from the ‘Follies,’ ‘Down in Bom Bombay’ or anything that is breezy and modern and up-to-the-moment. And for my wife and me it means those dear, old, live-forever tunes which we sang together in the shining days when our hearts were young and the world was a play-time place of hope and dreams. “That will be my gift—my great, inclusive gift—I call it. For I am going to give my wife the latest type of phonograph produced in the world today. “Tt is called the Acolian-Vocalion and it is the most modern development of the phonograph.” New Tones from the Phonograph Do you wish to hear tones so delicately pure that they are now reproduced for the first time? Try a flute record or a violin record in the Vocalion; and these are the subtlest comicbooks.com