Life — February 10, 1921 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Victrola Advertisement: "Caruso Immortalized" This is a **commercial advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It's a Victor Talking Machine Company ad promoting Victrola phonographs, featuring a portrait of **Enrico Caruso**, the renowned tenor who died in 1921. The ad's central claim is that recording technology has achieved what was previously impossible: preserving great artists' performances permanently. It contrasts Caruso's recorded voice—which "will live through all the ages"—with Jenny Lind's performances, which disappeared with her death. The advertisement positions the Victrola as a cultural institution, pricing units from $25 to $1500 and claiming that owning one provides access to "the greatest artists of the present generation," thus democratizing high art through technology.