Life, 1923-11-15 · page 7 of 40
Life — November 15, 1923 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks the injuries sustained by football players at major games. The text lists supposedly verified reasons why 80,000 people attended a big football game, including absurd categories like "Ladies whose husbands bought them new fur coats this fall" and "Ladies whose husbands bought them new fur coats last fall." The accompanying cartoon depicts a chaotic football scene where players are severely injured—broken limbs, collisions, and medical emergencies dominate the field. The caption notes this represents "how the team would look when it trotted on the field for the big game if newspaper accounts of its injuries were accurate." The satire targets sensationalized injury reporting in sports journalism, suggesting newspapers exaggerated player damage to draw crowds. It's a commentary on media hype and public morbid curiosity about football's dangers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lite Crowds and the Lure gather. Careful investigation by an expert who has made fifteen trips around the world to verify end- to-end laying for various advertisers has enabled Lire to present an accurate tabulation of the attendance in the iollowing groupings : People who came because otherwise they could not A T the biggest of all big football games, 80,000 persons People who just came along for the drive whose husbands bought them new fur coats fall... Ladies whose husbands haven't bought them new fur coats since Heaven knows when Men who make it a point to attend any event for which the ticke! ulators charge ten times what it is worth. , Débutantes looking forward to Junior Prom...... Dowagers looking backward to Junior Prom.... Distinguished foreigners, much puzzled Old grads who recall the time Phil Whoozis ¢: that punt and ran it back ‘ Undergrads who neither know nor care what Phil Whoozis did... Newspapermen and assorted outlanders... Members of faculties and their families wonderin which is the coach who is paid $15,000 a year. People who understand football and like it. 4,000 2,126 927 1,853 1,061 James K. McGuinness. ACCORDING TO THE EARLY-SEASON HOSPITAL LISTS ABOVE IS AN ACTION PICTURE OF HOW THE TEAM WOULD LOOK WHEN IT TROTTED ON THE FIELD FOR THE BIG GAME IF NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS OF ITS INJURIES WERE ACCURATE. comicbooks.com