Life, 1923-06-14 · page 44 of 44
Life — June 14, 1923 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Colgate's shaving cream advertisement**, not political satire. The humor is commercial rather than satirical. The ad uses a playful historical narrative: it claims that in early baseball, players wore elaborate facial hair (goatees, whiskers) so commonly that they became nuisances—literally interfering with gameplay when runners grabbed opponents' chins during plays. The phrase "I'm pulling for you" supposedly originated from this era of facial hair-grabbing. The joke is that **modern clean-shaving solves this problem**. By ridiculing the "hairy absurdity" of the past, Colgate positions its shaving cream as civilizing and progressive. The accompanying portrait shows a baseball player from that bewhiskered era. The technical diagram illustrates how the cream softens hair at the base for easier shaving. This reflects early 20th-century advertising's use of humor and pseudo-historical storytelling to sell grooming products—positioning shaving as modern, professional, and socially necessary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
When the fringed gentian portrayed here was a member of one of the big league baseball teams, weird wads of whiskers were so common that nearly every man seemed to be trying to look funnier than he was. In the old days, when the captain and the um- pire argued, their goatees bobbed belligerently, and always offered temptations for departures from good sportsmanship. It was during the period when ball players, like scientists, senators, and sewing machine agents, were bewhiskered that the phrase “I'm pulling for you’’ came into use. As the game developed, however, it became evident that only metaphorical pulling could be considered ethical. Something had to be done about it when shortstops began to retard the prog- ress of base-runners by clinging to the tawny tufts upon their chins. This diagrammatic magnified cross-section shows how the close, moist lather made by Colgate’s Rapid-Shave Cream goes to the base of each hair. The oily coat- ing upon the hair is quickly emul- sified by the lather. ‘This permits the moisture carried in the lather tosoften the hair at the base, where it meets the edge of the razor. Owing to the lack of anything for making soft- ening lather, shaving was a hardship, but whiskers had to go. It was obvious that if whiskers flour- ished baseball couldn’t. Happily, there is no longer any reason why the chin appertaining to man should be a hairy ab- surdity. Colgate’s Rapid-Shave Cream deprives the most recalcitrant beard of its obstinacy, and causes it to yield without a struggle. An easy once- over, and all’s well. Let Colgate’s establish friendly relations between your razor and your face. COLGATE’S Rapid-Shave Cream softens each hair of the beard at the base, where the razor’s work is done. With hot water or cold, with soft water or hard, Colgate’s makes a close, moist lather that leaves your face soothed and velvety when your shave is finished. Fill out and mail the attached coupon for a free trial tube containing cream enough for 12 easy, comfortable, convincing shaves. COLGATE & CO. Est. 1806 NEW YORK COLGATE & CO. Dept. 23 199 FultonSt., New York Please send me the free trial tube of Colgate’s Rapid-Shave Cream for better, easier shaving. Name..... Address. Truth in advertising implies honesty in manufacture comicbooks.com