Life, 1917-03-22 · page 38 of 38
Life — March 22, 1917 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1917 Life page advertises **Vanity Fair magazine** through satirical scenarios targeting women. The central joke: women who don't read Vanity Fair lack conversational wit and suffer social embarrassment. The "Wise Virgin" cartoon (top) references the biblical parable of wise vs. foolish virgins, inverting it—the "wise" woman reads Vanity Fair instead of maintaining her lamp, gaining reputation through magazine-acquired knowledge rather than genuine intelligence. Accompanying vignettes mock female social anxieties: boring dinner companions, failing to deliver witty retorts, choosing bad plays, and being unable to discuss current literature or art with important men. Each ends: "You could have [succeeded] if you had read Vanity Fair." The advertisement is both genuinely promotional and satirical—mocking women's insecurity while exploiting it to sell the magazine. It reflects 1917 attitudes about women's education, social performance, and consumption. The page also includes unrelated ads (Evans's depilatory powder, Horlick's malted milk) typical of magazine layouts.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE 1917 model Wise Virgin doesn't waste her time in keeping her lamp filled. She leaves the lighting system to the electricians and devotes herself to reading Vanity Fair—thus painlessly acquiring a reputation for amusing con- versation. Behold her brilliant reward, and, while you're at it, gaze on the horrid plight of those foolish virgins who don't read Vanity Fair. Evans’s Depilatory Outfit (complete and convenient for applying) |Never! . .. What, Never? . . . Well—Hardly Ever! DID YOU EVER ... Sit across the table from a perfectly good man at Sherry’s and watch him stifle yawns while you racked your brain in a panic for something—anything—amusing to say? makes it possible to wear with unconcern the AN : Oo thier wise teying: decollete gown of the pres: You could have amused him if you had read Vanity Fair ent day. It is a soft powder which, applied occasionally, keeps the underarm free of superfluous hair. There is no safe way of removing hair permanently. DID YOU-EVER ... Have a clever woman say something witty at your expense before a whole reception and be utterly unable to think of a retort until half way home in the taxi? You could have routed her if you had read Vanity Fair 5Oc., {2 complete outfit, Money back if you want Ce it. At drug and department stores, or send us soc. and dealer's name and address, GEORGE B. EVANS, 1108 Chestnot St., Philadelphia Makers of “Mum DID YOU EVER ... Pick out a miserable failure of a play and endure agonies of bore- dom all evening along with your newest cavalier whom you par- = ticularly wanted to fascinate? You could have selected a success if you had read Vanity Fair The Lost Art of Scathing NE doesn’t have to possess a very long memory to reach back to the time when editorial writers were wont to scathe vigorously with every second or third breath. But now the scathing editorial seems almost to have perished from the earth, at least from the bet- ter-bred part of the earth, Of course it is too bad. While scath- | DID YOU EVER ... Meet a great man at a tea and have him slip away to eat crumpets with a curly-headed flapper because you hadn't read the new book he quoted, or seen the new comedy he admired, or even heard that Paul Dougherty’s technique had suffered a sea change? You could have chatted in sprightly fashion about all of them if you had read Vanity Fair EVERY ISSUE CONTAINS: ing is the kind of thing that can very easily be overdone, yet a little scathing now and then is relished by the mildest men. There was certainly something tremendously virile and vimful about a man who could rouse himself to the highest peaks of righteous wrath and scathe incontinently. B.'0..J; B HAZZAR was writing the after-dinner speech he expected to deliver at his famous feast. He was short of humorous allusions though, because he was without his weekly copy of Lire, having failed to order it Rich Milk, Malted For Infant Pure nut Original Malted Milk Nourishing Delicious Digestible Bye one The powder dissolves in Invali on, upb: and growin Needs rain extract in powder. children. < ing the whole body. Invigorates nursing mothers, and the aged. | THE STAGE: First-night and behind-the-scenes views of the newest plays—with portraits. THE OPERA AND MUSIC: Stories and portraits of the new singers, composers, conductors and whatever is new about the old ones. THE ARTS: Illustrated news and criticisms of pictures, architecture, books and sculpture. HUMOR: The most original and amusing works of our young writers and artists, PEOPLE: Striking and unusual portraits of cele- brities who help make New York a brilliant, fas- cinating merry-go-round. SPORTS: An illustrated panorama of golf, ten- | nis, football, racing. polo and a dozen other out- door and indoor sports, CONDE NAST, Publisher ESSAYS AND REVIEWS: Byintellectually stimu- lating essayists and critics. PARIS AND LONDON: The latest diverting news from the European Capitals. DANCING: Outdoor dances, indoor dances, rhyth- mic dances, cosmic dances, FASHIONS: From Paris, London and New York for all discriminating men and women. DOGS AND MOTORS: Photos of the best- bred dogs and best-built motors, with de- scriptionsand timely discussion of them, SHOPPING: An index to the best ‘shops—what they sell: and a shop- ping offer that is bound to in- terest alert men and women, AND A COVER IN COLORS Don't allow yourself to have fatty degeneration of the mind. Keep in touch with the keenest and gayest intellectual life of the world. Insist on being au courant of existence. Just send us $1 for six issues of (a VANITY FAIR FRANK CROWNINSHIELD, Editor 2. os ARES Se ve PESES “a EX FI. SW” 449 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY ST SESS & More nou In the hom: Substitut ri it on hand. The Original Food-Drink for all ages. hing than tea, coffee, etc. Too Late “Say, if you're runnin’ to fish your little boy out 0’ the mill-pond, you're too late!” Oh, good heavens!” Yep, he crawled out hisself.” —Harper's Magazine. “Do you remember when you were a youngster and played bean bag?” yes. Weren't beans cheap in those ‘Washington Star. comicbooks.com