Life, 1920-10-14 · page 35 of 44
Life — October 14, 1920 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **product advertisement**, not satire or political content. It promotes "The Cheney," an early talking machine (phonograph), manufactured by the Cheney Talking Machine Company based in Chicago and New York. The ad uses an analogy comparing the instrument's sound quality to the human voice. The image shows an elegant phonograph in a formal parlor setting with a portrait visible above it. The text claims that just as the human throat naturally produces beautiful sound, The Cheney's "acoustic throat" similarly gathers and controls vibrations to reproduce music with comparable warmth and authenticity. This reflects early 20th-century marketing strategy: positioning mechanical sound reproduction as rivaling live human performance—a key selling point when phonographs competed against live entertainment and other brands.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| Bhe CHENEY ALL MUSIC FINDS FULL AND TRUE EXPRESSION IN ITS MELLOW TONES , z a t he HUMAN VOICE and Ghe Cheney Tue seauty of the human voice as bestowed by nature, can hardly be surpassed. And its principles, adapted to Tue Cueney, give rare beauty to the playing of this instrument. Just as sounds are gathered and controlled in the living | human throat, so are sound vibrations gathered and con- The Cheney Acoustic Throat trolled in the acoustic throat of Tur CHEeney. THE CHENEY TALKING MACHINE COMPANY + CHICAGO + NEW YORK: DRALERS EVERYWHERE comicbooks.com