Life — November 13, 1919 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a **full-page advertisement**, not a cartoon or satirical content. It promotes the Victrola, a phonograph manufactured by the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey. The ad emphasizes that major recording artists of the era recorded exclusively for Victor Records, and argues that only the Victrola could properly reproduce those recordings due to scientific coordination between the machine and records. The advertisement includes an image of the "Victrola XVII" model ($300, or $365 for the electric mahogany/oak version) and the famous Victor trademark—"His Master's Voice"—showing a dog listening to a phonograph. This represents early-20th-century consumer marketing emphasizing both artistic prestige and technological superiority as selling points.