Life, 1923-10-25 · page 2 of 34
Life — October 25, 1923 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **subscription advertisement** for Life magazine itself, using a Sherlock Holmes pastiche to promote their "Trial Subscription" offer. The cartoon depicts Holmes telling Watson to obtain a fountain pen coupon from a Life magazine page, claiming it will reveal something interesting. Watson obliges, discovering the trial subscription offer—prompting Holmes's exclamation about the "clever weekly publication." The advertisement then lists prominent contributors (C. Coles Phillips, F.X. Leyendecker, etc.), positioning Life as a prestigious publication. The humor derives from the meta-joke: Holmes deduces the magazine's quality through a seemingly trivial coupon, echoing his famous deductive methods. The subscription cost is listed as $1 for the trial period. This is pure **house advertising**, not political satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE: Published at New York, Ny Life Pub, Co;, at 598 Madison Av ‘the act of Marci Sd, 1879. Printed in U. June 8, land . 1883 “ \ \ \ Ss LIFE S Detective Bureau Herewith a ing fee of $1 trail of your tion. I can the following 302 Address One Year, 598 Madison Ave. New York City Canada, $1.40 in Europe) for which put me on the Quick, WATSON, the FOUNTAIN PEN!” “Wuy, my dear Holmes, what can have brought you out of your retire- ment like this?” “Perfectly simple, doctor; I have just observed something that looks like a coupon in the corner of this page, and I rather think that if I send it with a dollar, as the Americans call it, to 598 Madison Avenue, New York, I'll discover the neatest Trial Subscription a clever weekly publi- cation ever offered.” “Marvelous, Holmes, marvelous!” “Elementary, my good Wat- son; will you please to \ \ \ \ retain- WY ($1.20 in *S \ BS Trial Subscrip- furnish you with clues about myself: $5.00 (Canadian, $5.8 look at the notorious gang they have operating for them: C. Cotes PHILurs F. X. LEyeNDECKER Epwarp S. Martin Rosert C. BencHLEY Cuartes Dana Gipson Gtuyas WILLIAMS Monrtacue Grass Percy L. Crospy Bartrp LEONARD et al. “With that group coming to you every week for 10 weeks for $1, I deduce that the Trial Subscription i; must be good.” Homes, as usual, was right; the worth of our trial offer can- not be measured even with a Scotland Yardstick. We’re ready to prove it when you are. comicbooks.com B, at the Pe 1d Britis P