Life, 1921-02-24 · page 20 of 32
Life — February 24, 1921 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This *Life* magazine page contains several satirical pieces mocking 1920s American society: **"Ambition"** (left cartoon by C.B. Fuller): A child asks his father why trying to fight is worthwhile if the father got beaten as a boy. The joke critiques futile ambition—the generational cycle of struggle without progress. **"Interview with a Movie Queen"**: A parody of celebrity worship. The unnamed actress (likely a composite satire of silent-film starlets) is portrayed as vapid yet treated as profoundly wise. She's absurdly wealthy (lighting cigarettes with government bonds, diamond chandeliers), yet her answer to serious questions about politics, science, and philosophy is that movies need these topics to exist. The satire mocks both celebrity pretension and fan adulation. **"Natural Selection" and "The Feminine Optimist"**: Brief quips about marriage and women's perspectives. **"Life Among the Profiteers"**: A cartoon criticizing wartime profiteers who, having resolved the coal shortage, now seek another shortage to exploit—mocking cynical capitalism. The overall tone ridicules celebrity culture, materialism, and wartime profiteering.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AMBITION. No Results Apparent “FATHER, didn’t you ever get licked when you were a boy?” “Indeed I did.” “Well, then, what's the use trying it on me?” Interview with a Movie Queen (As it seems.) HE faint perfume of hothouse roses mingling with the subtle odor of truf- fles and boiling pearls almost powered me as I entered the million-dol- lar apartment of Rava Nesselrode, the greatest screen artist of the day. She was lighting a cigarette with a government bond. “What is your opinion of art, literature and music?” I asked, while the faint glow from the Brazilian diamond chan- delier lighted up her Los Angeles pose. “T'll say that they help some,” she re- marked gracefully, signing to the Cam- brian maid to pull down the point-lace curtains. “I love everything, believe me.” “What do you think,” I went on, al- most breathless at her beauty, “of world politics, of domestic science, of govern- ment control, of philosophy, and history, and labor, and religion, and science?” “How can we make pictures without them?” she asked simply. “That is why they exist, don’t you know.” I hadn't thought of this before, but its profound truth was so overwhelming that I withdrew as best I could from her en- chanting presence. Natural Selection MAN marries a woman when he is too young to know or too old to care A woman marries a man when she is too kind to look or too blind to sce. over- HE feminine optimist: one who sees the golden threads among the silver. LIFE AMONG THE PROFITEERS “THE COAL SHORTAGE HAS BEEN RELIEVED. “WELL, ALL WE HAVE TO DO NOW 1S TO FIXD ANOTHER SHORTAGE, comicbooks.com