Life, 1924-01-17 · page 34 of 36
Life — January 17, 1924 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a **"Broadcastings" column** critiquing radio entertainment, paired with period advertisements. **Main Content:** The article mocks low-quality radio songs from contemporary musical revues (*Scandals, Libels, Follies*), contrasting them unfavorably with older English music-hall humor. The author quotes lyrics from WWI-era soldiers' songs like "The Bells of Hell" to illustrate how even wartime ditties possessed more wit than current broadcast material. **The Cartoon:** "Mr. Samson! Please! Paging Mr. Samson!" is a **biblical reference joke**. It offers to help someone redeem their family name by "breaking into the local temple columns" (the magazine itself)—alluding to Samson's biblical destruction of the temple. The humor relies on readers recognizing the biblical story and appreciating the ironic "redemption" offered. **Advertisements:** The page includes typical 1920s-30s ads for **Listerine** (oral hygiene) and **Bellans** (indigestion relief), representing common patent medicine marketing of the era. The page captures period radio criticism and early 20th-century advertising conventions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Broadcastings (Continued from page 31) of the entertainment was in inverse ratio to the quality of the company, the impression must have been well founded. A number of songs were on the gram which to my knowledge had appeared on the programs of last year's Sca Libels, Follies and Frolics, and as the enunciation of the singers was unfortunately too good, i was impossible ne © anew how utterly meaningless and humorless were these so-called lyrics. I cannot remember enough of them i purpose of quotation, and this was only last week, but I can remem. Mr. Samson! ber a number of refrains that were . Please! Paging Mr. Samson! popular in English music halls years a and by contrast with these recent comic songs, they were gems of pointed humor. “Waiting at the Church” is one of them, and I particularly remember If you are the Samson a song about a little boy with an ex we're looking for, here's a chance to redeem the mistake of your illustri- ous ancestor tremely large head who was taken into a hat shop by his parents for the pur pose of buying him a new hat, with the Did he have a right result—and the refrain—that “The only Remember what hap- to suspect her? s ‘d fit ‘im, was ‘the boxes that the UNBAR was in a terrible oi He was worriec sick about his wife She had been ery strangely during the past S came in There is ) a rousiv us quot Neil Lyons in Market le,” which “I've been knocking at every door pened to him, that time he broke into the col- umns of the local temple? It cost him his life. Well you can break into this mo ng at every bell The thing that troubled him mos » find the furnished r column, and it will only h Where I left my little Nell. cost you a Dollar—and Nor did the Salvation Army {2 you get 10 brand-new je state of affairs its duty in providing glees for Lires in return. riving him mad. He suspected masses. To the air of “She Only An- everything. And, yet, he ak Among them will be to blame swered Ting-a-ling-a-l some red + * shirted genius wrote the lines: THE ST. VALENTINE’S a ¢ insidious thing about “The bells of Hell go tin NUMBER halitosis leasant breath). You For you but not for me yourself, rarely know whe you have I'm off for the angels, sing-a-ling it. And not only closest friends ling, but wives and husbands dodge this that's where I want to be. rject O death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a- metimes, of course, halitosis ling, comes from some deep-seated or Where, grave, thy victo-ree? ganic ‘ $ No ting-a-li Borrow the shears from 1 n t Delilah, Obey That Im- pulse to clip off the bot- tom of this column, put some strength behind your fountain pen, and mouth and leaves the bre THE BIG BUSINESS NUMBER THE EASTER NUMBER 1 — halitosis is only a that yields to the of Listerine as a mouth % wash and gargle. brouck s It halts food fermentation i . as a vehicle for the stirring refrain, sing-a-ling. There is also a record of t-en guerre” being us LIFE 598 Madison Avenue, New York , ; “or He's a Je leave the rest to Lire’s esh and clean, the old o puts you on the safe and polite sid z Your druggist will supply Dear LiFe Read the interesting little boc Trial Subscription? Because here that comes with every bottle—Lam- is my dollar (Canadian. $1.20: Hot water Sure Relief 25¢ AND 75¢ PACKAGES EVERYWHERE Sther ‘odor bik by cell Staff and the U. S. Mail © of Listerine with Listerine. He sells lots of it. Is it true about the 10 weeks’ Pharmaca Company 7 Foreign. $1.40) a a arm acal Company, Saint = 6 BELLANS Foreign 1.40) and my name and POUKDOP KALLENBEER CRAMTORD COMPANT, NEW YORE comicbooks.com