Life, 1925-01-22 · page 35 of 36
Life — January 22, 1925 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **self-promotional advertisement** for Life magazine's upcoming "Boobs' Number" issue, designed by John Held Jr. (a famous cartoonist of the era). The humor relies on **playful mockery of ordinary Americans**. The grid at top—reading "BOOB" any direction—is a visual pun suggesting widespread foolishness. The text claims 110 million "boobs" (slang for stupid people) exist in the U.S., and sarcastically suggests they should all read this issue. **The satire targets**: Life's own readers, treating them humorously as average, unsophisticated people who would find the magazine entertaining. The page promotes a **$1,000 contest** and trial subscriptions while listing notable contributing writers (Rube Goldberg, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley)—lending prestige to what's ostensibly a magazine "for boobs." This reflects Life's identity as a **sophisticated yet accessible satirical weekly** that mocked American mass culture while selling itself to that same audience.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
It’s BOOB Any Way You Look At It T is estimated that there are one hundred and ten million boobs in the United States alone. Every one of them should read next week's issue— the BOOBS’ NUMBER of Lifee The cover is by John Held, Jr.—with inside contributions from Rube Goldberg, Percy Crosby, Dorothy Parker, Rea Irvin, Robert Benchley and many others. A trial subscription (for ten weeks) Starti t week entered now will enable you to follow arting next weel the Great the new $1,000 contest and will bring you, among other notable issues, the COMMUTERS’, CALIFORNIA and ST. PATRICK'S Numbers. Boob busines: my Dollar. Pieare send Live for Ten Weeks to CONTEST (With 13 cash prises) comicbooks.com