Life, 1925-07-30 · page 5 of 36
Life — July 30, 1925 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains entertainment industry satire from the 1920s. The top section criticizes Hollywood's promotional tactics, particularly "The Press Agent" column by Howard Dietz, mocking how studios manufacture publicity through sensationalism—lions escaping zoos, staged incidents in Central Park—to generate newspaper coverage and draw audiences. The cartoon below depicts a film director instructing actresses to wear "crinolines" instead of one-piece swimsuits during a studio visit, implying that studios deliberately manipulate what visitors see to create false impressions of propriety. The joke satirizes Hollywood's hypocrisy: studios carefully controlled their public image while privately operating differently. This reflects 1920s anxiety about cinema's influence and Hollywood's manufactured personas.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Economical Passions” (The Movie Trade Journal Reviews the Tax-Cut Proposal) SA WHOLE. A niety pea, suRE To co BIG WITH PATRO OVER THE KIDDIES’ HEADS BUT THEY WILL JOIN IN THE CHEERING. CAST. Cal Coolidge, Amelia Bud get and Andy Mellon work right along together. Cal quiet comedian but seems to know how to keep in fans’ favor. Mellon fine sympathetic old man. Bud- get's fat make-up a scream, TYPE OF STORY. Social drama with happy ending. Cal's girl, Amelia Budget, wants him to have third-term presidency. Says she will go around and plug for him and get him in right with “people.” Andy Mellon, Amelia's guardian, says she is too fat. “People” won't fall for fat budget. If she wants to put it over right, she must reduce. The big laughs come when Andy and Cal appoint themselves Amelia’s train- ers, They take away her candy and give it to “Congress,” her pet dog, sock her with a potato masher, roll her over a pork barrel, and ride her on an elec- tric horse. She puts up stiff comedy fight. The last reel shows Amelia in great shape standing beside Cal, both receiving plaudits of multitude. Amelia, to show off her figure, wears snappy one-piece Koolidge Kut economy bath- ing suit made of reduced income tax blanks. While crowds cheer she is clected Miss United States, Cal is given WHAT MADE. THF MOVIFS third term and Mellon a quarter cigar labeled “Mexico,” which explodes and dissolves into American g fade out. BOX OFFICE AN 2. Not much in this for the box office, but a swell come-on for slipping something over later in the season. H.W. HH. HE 's night time in Tennessee, it's daylight everywhere else. The Press Agent [F you should read, amidst the news, That all the lions in the zoos Have scurried forth, unfettered, free— Remember, that's Publicity. You'd be surprised what he will do— This Baron of the Ballyhoo— To brighten up the pallid flame Of picture's, star’s, or magnat 's name One day he wrecks a ship off Brook. line— A ruse the public swallows hook, line And sinker. Then he plans a duel In Central Park; all this fer fuel To warm up interest to a glow And call attention to his show. More similes and adjectives Than Wilstach quotes, Roget's book gives Are flung before the public eye— he who reads will also buy. The vacant field, the open space, The pole, the tree—each is a place To paste and tack alluring lines, For movie fans believe in signs. This very moment, as I'm typing, He comes in, on his round of sniping, And on my back he sticks a card... To post an unsuspecting bard! Howard Di Early Slang ISTORY TEACHER: And what did Hero say to Leander after he swam the Hellespont? Tue Kin: “You're all wet!" Director: SAY, GIRLS, DON’T PUT ON THOSE ONE-PIECE SUITS; YOU'RE GOING TO WEAR CRINOLINES INSTEAD—WILL HAYS IS VISITING THE STUDIO TO-DAY. comicbooks.com