Life, 1921-08-18 · page 8 of 35
Life — August 18, 1921 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top cartoon depicts a street scene with an early automobile and well-dressed onlookers. The caption reads: "Have you decided upon a name for the baby?" / "Not yet. It's so difficult to find one that will screen well." This is satire about the early film industry's practice of screening or testing names for public appeal. The joke plays on the absurdity of naming a newborn child based on marketing considerations—treating the baby like a Hollywood product rather than a person. This reflects Life magazine's satirical commentary on how the emerging entertainment industry was reshaping American culture, reducing even personal decisions to commercial calculation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Have you decided upon a name for the baby?” A Future Star “Not yet. It’s so difficult to find one that will screen well.” Report on Atlantic Seaboard Summer Resorts By Life’s Special Investigation Committee N its investigation of seaside resorts, ex- tending from the tippity- tip-top corner of the Maine coast to just the farthest point south on the Jersey coast that ever you can go, your committee finds condi- tions to be perfectly terrible, terrible. For the purposes of this investigation, the members of the committee divided themselves (of their own free will and in perfect unanimity) into three groups, formations, or squads. One group (the first) took up the question of bath-houses and other bathing facilities (including a thorough examination of the Atlantic Ocean); the next group devoted its at- tention to the hotels, and the third squad made a special search into Social Con- ditions. Bathing Facilities It was found that in the question of bath-houses American civilization has reached its lowest ebb. “Totally inade- quate in number,” is the proper phrase, and it will be seen that it is none too strong when one realizes that for the 4,300,000 bathers along the Atlantic coast there are barely 500,000 bath-houses. In these 500,000 bath-houses the most frightful congestion was found to prevail. In fully nine-tenths of the bath-houses examined the mirrors were found to be so full of imperfections in the glass that the dresser’s nose and chin seemed to be Igcated at the same spot just under his left ear. The effect of this on the gen- eral morale can easily be imagined. Further investigation disclosed the fact that, even in those places where the bath-houses are located directly at the beach’s edge, there are always at least one sharp-edged clam shell, three long splinters and a piece of needle-bearing seaweed somewhere in the path of each and every bather on his way to the water. Hotels The sub-committee on hotels reports that conditions could not be worse. In every hotel called “The Ocean View House” (and there are 8,200 on the At- lantic sea-board) only six rooms have a view of the Atlantic Ocean, From tlie tio we ev comicbooks.com