Life, 1919-09-11 · page 20 of 48
Life — September 11, 1919 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the early 20th-century craze for spiritualism and séances. Life magazine announces it has hired "Madam Belladonna Eucalyptus Pasadena"—a transparently ridiculous name—as an exclusive medium to communicate with the dead. The humor operates on multiple levels: famous historical figures (Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington) supposedly send messages via planchette, discussing absurdities like tiddledywinks and ping-pong. The satire escalates when the magazine claims to accidentally contact *living* people instead of the dead, with a punchline involving the office cat short-circuiting the spiritual connection. The accompanying illustration depicts a séance scene. The joke targets gullible spiritualism enthusiasts, charlatan mediums, and the pseudoscientific pretensions of psychical research societies that were genuinely popular and credible-seeming to many Americans at this time. Life's tone suggests the whole enterprise is transparently fraudulent—perfect fodder for their satirical magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
450 HE that Lire has engaged the exclusive services of Madam Belladonna Eucalyptus Pasa- dena has sent a thrill through the spirit world. Julius Cesar just plan- chetted us his congratulations: “ The last time I was invited to come across with my personality sob-stuff, they introduced me to a chap named Hyslop, who led me a mad conversa- tional gambol about a game called tiddledewinks." We passed a whole hour talking about toothbrushes—me sitting there in my toga, wanting to be while this intellectual giant was giving me a side about the revels at Columbia. Give me a few hours’ notice, and I'll type a speech that will make Senator Lodge look like a Back Bay moving-picture Napoleon Bonaparte floated in and wrote on the slate: “The good news came just as 1 was winning an exciting game of celestial ping-pong from Wellington. Wonder- announcement sincere, LLFE a, ee fe SL Re ts ful chap, Wellington! We never un- derstood cach other until we landed on this side. We are now col- laborating on a Saturday Evening Post romance about Waterloo that will make Irvin Cobb shudder with envy when he reads i While Madam Pasadena is un- doubtedly the greatest medium now in captivity, it will take us some days to get her into shape for regular sit- tings. She has been going the rounds of so many psychical-research chapters that she is in a highly nervous condi- tion. Her aura has got to have a new tread, and the Indian control she is under has been nagged by so many college professors that he chafes like a Texas broncho at every séance. We are reading to him daily a com- plete editorial from a metropolitan newspaper, and hope in a short time to reduce him to a state of semi-con- sciousness. Yet, in both spite of these minor diffi- HIS WIFE'S GONE TO THE COUNTRY AS SHE IMAGINES HIM, AND— AS HE USUALLY 1S "YES, WE'RE JUST PAS INGTO culties, we have an announcement to make that will create a vast revolution in human thought. So momentous is it that we hesitate to make it, for fear it will not be believed. Through Madam Belladonna Eucalyp- tus Pasadena we have not only been able to communicate with the dead, bu ith the livit As with all great discoveries, this came about entirely by accident. At a recent sitting, Dr. Samuel John- son was regaling us with an account of how they lived on the other side. “We live much the same as you do,” the Doctor was saying. “I am still wearing the old-fashioned nightshirts, but Victor Hugo recently sent me by parcel post (somewhat delayed in transit) a suit of pink pajamas, and I'm going to spring them on the Milky Way some bright night when—” At this point another voice broke in which Madam Pasadena at first couldn’t recognize. “T really can’t make out,” she whis- pered, “whether this spirit is dead or alive.” At this the office cat, who had been furiously lapping up a milk shake in the corner, made a wild leap on top of the corrugated-iron cabinet, short- circuiting Johnson and making the connection clearer. “Boys, would you believe it?” can now communicate went comicbooks.com