Life — August 24, 1922 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Our Counsellors" - Life Magazine Satire The top cartoon depicts a film star consulting a lawyer about divorce costs. The lawyer offers a cynical deal: handle her divorce cases for ten years in exchange for a "special price." This satirizes how divorce—then scandalous and legally complex—was becoming common enough among Hollywood celebrities that lawyers could profit from it as a specialty practice. The accompanying article mocks various public figures who serve as cultural "counsellors": Henry Ford (business), William Jennings Bryan (politics), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (fiction). The satire criticizes how these men, despite expertise in narrow fields, presume to advise the public on matters far beyond their knowledge. The page ridicules both celebrity culture's influence and experts overstepping their authority.