Life, 1925-04-30 · page 7 of 42
Life — April 30, 1925 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine contains two satirical pieces: **"A Baseball Magnate Buys a Rembrandt"** mocks wealthy sports executives' conspicuous consumption. A baseball team owner is duped by con artists posing as a plumber and art collector into purchasing a fake Rembrandt for $298,106—an astronomical sum (equivalent to roughly $5 million today). The satire targets both the owner's gullibility and the absurd art market prices of the era, suggesting that wealthy industrialists lack taste and are easily separated from their money through flattery and schemes. **"The Right Background"** appears to be the beginning of a narrative piece about a couple's move to a new house, with an illustration captioned "The Interrupted Story: 'Ah, yes—and then what did she say?'" The joke likely plays on marital domestic life or social pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ZL e A Baseball Magnate Buys a Rembrandt IRST appears a scout, disguised as a plumber, who under pretense of repairing the drains looks the picture over. eee Next appears another scout who comes frankly as a col- lector, but who pretends that he is interested in a Ploomf that hangs close by. He is loud in his admiration of the Ploomf and finally offers $476 for it—delivery to be at the close of the current art season. The dealer wants $500 for the Ploomf. The agent packs his trunk to leave town, but suddenly gets an idea. He'll take the Ploomf for $320,000 if the dealer will throw the Rembrandt in with it, not because he wants the Rembrandt at all, but because it looks funny for a man to travel with a picture under one arm and nothing under the other. see They agree on this price. The next day the scout shows a wire from the Magnate—he has had it in his pocket all the time—saying that he doesn't need a Ploomf this year as he has an old Ploomf that’s in better condition than he thought, but that he doesn’t feel that he ought to have taken so much of the dealer’s time for nothing, so he'll buy the Rembrandt, which he knows won't be of any use to him, for $298,000. He finally gets the Rembrandt for $298,106. eee His publicity man broadcasts the announcement that the Magnate has just purchased the world’s greatest picture for $1,800,000. Six months later the Rembrandt is released to the Chilli- cothe (Ohio) Public Library. Bertram Bloch. eee The Right Background W Now, John, we've got to move into a more up-to- ate house. I wouldn't think of remaining here in this old-fashioned place, now that we have such a lot of lovely antique furniture. THE INTERRUPTED STORY The Cool One: au, YES—AND THEN WHAT DID she SAY? comicbooks.com