Life, 1923-08-30 · page 9 of 36
Life — August 30, 1923 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page announces winners of a Life magazine picture-titling contest. The illustration at top depicts a formal social gathering—men in tuxedos and women in elegant dresses at what appears to be a party or reception. The winning titles are: - **First Prize** ($500): "Senile Detentia" by Margaret S. Conan - **Second Prize** ($300): "Go West, Young Man—Go West" by Jane Atherton - **Third Prize** ($150): "One Stoops to Conquer, the Other Stands to Win" by F.E. Rolfe - **Fourth Prize** ($50): A title about picture contests and worst titles always winning The "Echoes of the Contest" section notes the contest drew nearly 900 submissions from worldwide readers, including responses from remote locations. The satire lies in readers creating humorous or cynical captions for the dignified scene—the winning titles suggest social commentary about aging, westward migration, and the arbitrariness of contests themselves.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Announcing the Winning Titles SENILE DETENTIA lee is happy to announce that the following title, submitted by Mrs. Marcaret S. ConAN, of 218 West Beard Avenue, Syracuse, N. Y., is awarded the First Prize of $500.00: Senile Detentia The Second Prize of $300.00 is awarded to JANE ATHERTON, of 2056 Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, N California, for the following: “Go West, Young Man—Go West” The Third Prize of $150.00 is awarded to F. E. Roire, of 608 West 24th Street, Richmond, Vir- ginia, for the following: % One Stoops to Conquer, the Other Stands to Win The Fourth Prize of $50.00 is awarded to Joun L. Hosste, Woodstock Hotel, New York City, for the following: He: I See They’ve Gotten Us Into One of Those Picture Contests Where the Worst Title Always Gets the Prize Echoes of the Contest TH Contest Picture first appeared in the issue of Lirr dated April 26, 1923. The contest closed at noon, Tues- day, June 12th. Almost two hundred thousand titles were submitted. Over nine hundred contributors were too late. Lire extends its thanks to the many thousands of read- ers whose interest and enthusiasm made this contest so successful. Checks have been forwarded to the winners. The most surprising feature was the world-wide inter- est taken in our Contest. We had them all—Southern and Central America; Mexico, Cuba and the West Indies; China, Japan and India; our island possessions and other people’s islands, too; Europe from Spain to Soviet terri- tory, with Scandinavian and Latin races well to the fore; Great Britain and Canada; good answers from Turkey and from Greece, and some from the Land of the Sphinx; while a cable from Malta came near the prize list with Robbed of her partner By an insidious jade, She is returning to pleasures From which she had strayed. Descriptions vary from “The Outskirts of Society” to “The Center of Attraction,” and from asterisks and dashes and good Anglo-Saxon to “The Religious Suitor: Dear Lord, Take Mother Home.” One sympathetic but (Continued on page 32) comicbooks.com