Life — June 30, 1921 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "LIFE Moves" - Editorial Commentary on Magazine Relocation 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.