Life, 1921-06-30 · page 10 of 41
Life — June 30, 1921 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page announces LIFE magazine's move from Thirty-first Street to a new building at Fifty-seventh and Madison Avenue. The satirical illustration depicts the chaotic move, with cherubs and figures tumbling from the old building (marked "1921") while papers and materials scatter. The text humorously describes the upheaval: departments debated who would move first, the business office was "hated and despised," and joke-writers and artists were pushed out to "shambles" on Fifth Avenue. The piece notes pre-war disruptions—including a bomb planted at LIFE's office in April 1918 (never solved)—before celebrating the move as signaling "returning prosperity and a better world." The cartoon satirizes institutional chaos and growing pains during America's post-war economic recovery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE confronted by the greatest crisis in Lire’s history, it did nobly. The advertising and editorial departments followed, in the limousine of the former, with Gee Bee Are at the helm. Lire’s slogan, “ Beauty, Love and Laughter,” the gift of Philip Gibbs, was taken down for the day, and kept on ice, but it now floats triumphantly over Lire’s new quarters. Before the great event took place there were many signs and wonders. In the latter part of May, or the day the new quarters were secured, several large spots appeared on the sun; this was succeeded by a rare display of the aurora borealis; the theory of relativity was announced, Betel- geuse began to give trouble and Winnecke’s comet was seen approaching the earth. The week before the final moving, Oliver Herford refused to take any nourishment, the stock market fell to its low- est point in three years, George Cohan announced that he would retire from the stage, and it was thought that Nicholas Murray Butler might not go to Europe after all. During the last quarter of a century distin- guished visitors from all parts of the world have found their way to Lire’s building in Thirty- first Street. Lire’s activities during the war were not relished by the pro-Germans, and one night in April, 1918, a large bomb was planted in front of Lirt: office being discovered there later by one A F of Manhattan's efficient police. The ‘ ¥ ‘deat criminal, however, was LIFE Moves A } never caught. ; < ; Lire’s moving is al- , ready the signal for re- turning prosperity and a better world ‘T is all over at last. Lire is safely moved from his old building on Thirty-first Street to his new and palatial quarters at the corner of Fifty-seventh and Madison Avenue. Prosperity is rapidly returning. The profiteers are all taking a back seat. International relations will be rapidly adjusted. Even if George Harvey comes back from London we shall now man- age somehow. The distance from Thirty-first Street to Fifty-seventh Street is two miles, four thousand, fifty-three feet and eleven inches; by this much the intellectual centre of the United States has been shifted. It was a terrible ordeal ; lots were drawn by the advertising, editorial and business departments as to who would go over the top first. The choice fell to the hitherto hated and despised busi- ness office, which, about the middle of June, bade farewell to the little group of serious-minded joke-writers and artists left behind, and bravely pushed out into the shambles of Fifth Avenue, reaching the new building late in the month. We must say for the B. O. that, Something had to be done. comicbooks.com