Life, 1925-02-26 · page 23 of 36
Life — February 26, 1925 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes California's booster culture—the aggressive promotion of California as paradise—through a New York perspective. The main article, "California, I'm Not Coming," uses humorous exaggeration to argue that New York offers everything California does, only better: fruits available in cans, artificial climate control via subways and Turkish baths, movie studios scattered throughout the Bronx and New Jersey, and most importantly, *real* scandals you can witness live in theaters rather than merely hear about. The "Back Number" jokes mock California's appeal: one features a child whose father is a temporary visitor (suggesting California attracts transient wealthy men), another features a lumberman mistaking massive redwoods for "weeds," and a final jab notes that famous "Western" and "New England" poets were actually born in New York and California respectively—inverting expectations. The satire targets 1920s-era California real estate promotion while defending New York's cultural and material superiority through comedic exaggeration.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NO MORE POKING WITH FORKS AND HATPINS OR SMASHING THE BOTTLE TO REMOVE THE OLIVES. EACH OLIVE HAS A STEEL BALL IN PLACE OF THE PIT. USE THE MAGNET ATTACHED AND THE OLIVE WILL JUMP OUT OF THE BOTTLE. Faith WYER: What are your assets and financial resources? Curent (hopefully): Well, I've en- tered a prize contest. “THAT'S THE DAMNEDEST-LOOKIN’ BIRD I EVER SEE.” » LIFE - California, I’m Not Coming (By a Native Son of New York) HY live in California? What can California give that we can’t get right here on the little old Manhattan isle? Fruits? Climate? Movies? Scenery? Scandals? Oh, boy, you hear me broadcast! I'm telling you California is wishing right now that the Mississippi River would dry up so she could say she was that much nearer New York. Take the matter of fruits. California hasn't got a thing that we can’t buy off any fruit stand or out of any kind of a can. Oranges, peaches, cherries, everything—and all labeled and packed as nice as you could ask. Then there's the climate. Poof! Ride in our subways and be cold. Walk into our Turkish baths and cook. See the snow on our skyscrapers and the palm trees in our hotel lobbies. Boy! As for the movie studios—pfaf! We have them so thick in the Bronx and on Seventh Avenue and over in Brooklyn and just across in New Jersey that you run over the actors every time you back out of your garage. And who said scenery?—Get out!! Look at our gold-lincd mountains of lower Manhattan. See our millionaires walking around with their golden gaits. Pipe off the seals at any furrier’s and the rocks in any jewelry store. Watch the sun set over Jersey City. Walk up any street where a payroll is being carried and sec our own Death Valley. Wow! And the — scandals—ah, there it is! In California you hear about them, but in this burg you can go see them in any theatre. Don't talk to me about California. J.O. M. Van Tassel. Back Number ITTLE BOBBY: Sce that man with the golf sticks? That's. my new papa, Limtte Jacky: Oh, I know him. He was my papa three papas ago. LL’S fair in love, war and the California weather reports. California Lumberman: Nice sTaxo OF REDWOOD THERE Lumberman: tuem? 1 THOUGHT THEM WAS WEEDS, Michigan Omitted from the Booster Book RET HARTE, “famous Western poct,” was born August 25, 1839, in Albany, New York. Robert Frost, “the poct of New Eng- land,” was born March 26, 1875, in San Francisco, California. It TAKES TEN MINUTES OF CALI. FORNIA SUNSHINE TO TURN AN UN- BELIEVER INTO A BOOSTER comicbooks.com