Life, 1919-10-09 · page 37 of 48
Life — October 9, 1919 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **primarily an advertisement**, not political satire. It's a Studebaker automobile ad from Life magazine (page 651). The image shows a 1920s open-air touring car with passengers enjoying a scenic countryside drive. The ad copy emphasizes the car's reliability, power (60 horsepower), capacity (seven passengers), and smooth ride on its 126-inch wheelbase. The "satire" element, if any, is subtle and typical of early-20th-century advertising: the glamorous lifestyle imagery (well-dressed passengers, pastoral landscape) selling aspirational middle-class comfort. The ad boasts about luxuries like "genuine hand-buffed leather upholstery" and a "jeweled 8-day clock"—details that sound humorous to modern ears but were genuine selling points then. The reference to Studebaker's "68 years" of quality establishes brand heritage as a trust signal. This is straightforward period advertising, not editorial commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
DEPENDABLE and never failing 60-horsepower motor A drives the Seven-Passenger Studebaker BIG-SIX easily on high gear and without effort, at two miles an hour or a mile-a-minute. Its 126-inch wheelbase, with per- fectly balanced chassis, gives to this car riding qualities that are truly remarkable. Equipment includes cord tires, shock absorbers, genuine hand- buffed leather upholstery, silver-faced speedometer and jewelzd 8-day clock, glove box in back of front seat, extension tonneau lamp and many other conveniences Studebaker quality. dominant for 68 years, is reflected in this BIG-SIX comicbooks.com