Life, 1920-09-02 · page 4 of 52
Life — September 2, 1920 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The illustration shows cherubs carrying large blocks labeled "SEP," "TEM," and "BER"—spelling out September. This appears to be a seasonal reference to the month when readers typically return from summer vacations. The accompanying text, "How Do You Feel Now?", uses humorous self-deprecation to solicit subscriptions. The magazine acknowledges the common impulse to ask vacationing readers to subscribe, then playfully admits this impulse is annoying. The tone is deliberately contradictory: they ask for subscriptions while claiming not to really want them, creating comedy through ironic manipulation. The page is primarily a subscription drive, with a special offer box below promising three months of Life for one dollar to new subscribers. The humor lies in Life's self-aware acknowledgment of aggressive marketing tactics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
How Do You Feel Now? Are you back from your vacation, or on the way? We have had ours, and when we are feeling particularly well, there comes over us the uncontrollable desire to ask you to become a regular subscriber. We know that we ought not to do it. We struggle against it in vain. Then we look over some of the coming numbers, realize how good they are, and that passionate desire to communicate the good news to hesitating people comes over us. They are not all good, of course. Sometimes, at the very last moment, we are in despair. The whole number is wrong. ‘Then we tear it all to pieces, take out the things that we have intimated to some good friend will go in, and call down the contemptuous wrath of the occasionally friendly Business Office. But, then, that’s what makes Lire. That, and your sympathy and encouragement. Fd When this is expressed in subscriptions, we are glad, tumultuously glad. Don’t do it now if you don’t want to. Don’t obey that pure impulse if you ‘feel that you can spend a paltry dollar in any better way. We would not beguile you overmuch. But we would beguile you just enough. (Note—Our Confidential Guide to Contributors, temporarily interrupted because of the uncontrollable desire mentioned above, will Le continued soon.) Perr er ee ee i Cording to “he ee a ee ‘ how much you * sy Special Offer (See coupon at left.) Enclosed find One Dollar (Cana- dian $1.20, Foreign $1.40). Send Lire for three months (twelve issues) to is find enclose Open only to new subscribers; no subscriptions renewed at this rate. LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York. One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.80; Foreign, $6.60.) }} ee ww 22 wwe a man ennat ene sew w~ ewan en mane saay comicbooks.comul