Life, 1917-08-02 · page 40 of 40
Life — August 2, 1917 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward product advertisement for the Columbia Grafonola phonograph, published in *Life* magazine on August 2, 1917. The ad promotes Columbia's gramophone and record player, emphasizing superior sound quality through claims about "tone" and "life-like" reproduction. It features images of the device itself and highlights technical qualities: resonance, delicacy in reproducing orchestral and vocal music, and "living warmth." The central rhetorical strategy is the claim that one word—"life"—captures what "Columbia tone" truly means, playing on the magazine's own title for branding effect. Prices ranged from $15 to $350 (higher in Canada with duty), indicating a product marketed across multiple economic classes during World War I. The "music note" trademark served as authentication for genuine Columbia products, a consumer concern in an era of competing phonograph manufacturers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Columbia Superiority és measured by Columbia Tone Columbia Grafonola, rice Other models $15 to $350 Prices im Canada plus duty HE RECORD played on the Columbia Grafonola is more than a record —it is reality. Through the marvelous Columbia reproducer, every indi- vidual musical pulsation—every modulation of every note comes back with volume and warmth the same as the original itself. The splendid resonance so essential to reproducing orchestral music; the delicacy needed to carry the notes of whispering woodwinds and murmuring strings; the ability to convey the Jiving warmth that gives great voices their personality—these make up the miraculous perfection of the Columbia repro- ducer and Columbia TONE. Clear, natural, brilliant, true—these words are hardly 2nough to describe it. Only one word can truly tell all that ‘Columbia tone” implies—and that single word is: Jife! Look for the “music note” trade mark— the mark of a genuine Columbia Grafonola. August 2, 1917} comicbooks!eom