Life, 1921-09-08 · page 5 of 36
Life — September 8, 1921 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an **advertisement** for a Kelly-Springfield Tire company contest, not political satire. The cartoon depicts a humorous scene where multiple people are gathered around automobiles, with the winning caption by Miss Claire Newman reading: "It's great to have friends for an emergency like this—It's better to have Kelly-Springfields—then you never have an emergency." The joke plays on tires as reliable safety equipment: sturdy Kelly-Springfield tires prevent emergencies, making them more valuable than even good friends. The illustration shows various people and vehicles to visualize this competitive advantage, making the tire brand appear indispensable for safe motoring. The text explains the contest mechanics: over 120,000 entries were submitted, judged across fifteen finalists, with Newman's dialogue selected as best.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
: Published Weekly by Life Publishing Entered as Second Class Matter June 8, 1883 at the Post OMice at New York, Cuantes Daxa Grngox, President ‘Madison Avenue, New York, N. ¥. N.Y., under the act ‘of March 3d, 1879. Gronoe B. Rromani resident Subseription, Five Dollars Entered ax Second Gass Matter at the Post Offes Department, Canada Le Ror Minin ‘Teas, Gpokan b Ursa Bee. No. 2027. ‘Sept. 8, 1921. Copyright in England and the British Possessions. B. F, Provanpm, Western Manager KELLY SPRINGFIELD TIRE Prize Contest Announcement FTER weeks of con- sideration of the conversations submitted by the 120,000 or more persons who sent in en- tries to the Kelly-Spring- field Prize Contest adver- tised in the March 10th issue of this magazine, the judges rendered a de- cisior in favor of the dia- logue sent in by Miss Claire Newman of 703 Mt. Prospect Ave., New- ark, N. J. “It’s great to have friends for an emergency like this.” “It’s better to have Kelly-Springfields—then you never have the emergency.” —Submitted by Miss Claire Newman, HE judges had a difficult task. There were a large number of exceedingly clever entries, but many of them had to be discarded either because they did not quite fit the picture or because they were so similar to captions suggested by two or three hundred other contestants that it was impossible to decide which had phrased the idea best. Every letter submitted was read as it came in and was immediately either laid aside for further consideration or eliminated for one reason or another. When the closing date came the judges had over a thousand entries for final consideration. This number was gradually sifted down to fifteen. Each of the three judges then wrote down his first, second and third choice of the fifteen. When the lists were compared, it was found that Miss Newman’s contribution was the only one which had been chosen by all three judges, and a check for $250.00 was therefore mailed to her. A contribution from far-off Peru got two votes and so did one from a Pennsylvania farm, but the winning caption was the only one that got all three votes. The entries came in from all over the world—from Canada, Mexico, Cuba, South America, Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, China, France, England, Alaska and every state in the Union. Only four contestants failed to recognize the picture as a Kelly-Springfield advertisement. comicbooks.com