Life — August 13, 1925 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

stantial. » LIFE - “Greetings from BAY CITY” GUESS you know what sort of a girl Iam. Sometimes you see me in a hammock or in a swing, or sometimes in a bathing suit, in or out of the water as the case may be. I have also been photographed in a baseball suit, or riding a horse. Sometimes there is a lot of us girls sort of falling off a log and then, of course, there are the moonlight scenes with the gentlemen models. The postcard is finished off with an art title like “The Scenery Is Swell Here,” “I Am Right in the Swim,” “The Time, the Place and the Girl,” “Papa Love Mamma?” etc. Some of the titles are quite peppy, I regret to say. How did I happen to get the job? Well, you see, I was a hat-check girl at a society ballroom and it was hard work to keep body and soul together, what with a permanent wave lasting me only two months. But what I objected to most was the little opportunity I had of meeting nice people. Not that the people wasn't good, plain people, nothing fancy, you understand, but wholesome and sub- Then, too, a young girl is always crazy for a change. She came to that magic Fairyland which men call BROADWAY— and was blinded by the glitter of its wickedness. What would YOU have done in her place? Oh, how I wept, then, the bitter tears of regret and remorse! If my mother and father had only told me things I never would have done it. Why doesn’t a girl's mother and father ever tell her things? Well, I guess it is too late now. I guess I could tell them a few things myself. About the gentlemen models that you see in the comic postcards. I will say they are a decent, industrious, sober lot, as you can see from their derby hats. They may look fresh in the pictures, but that is only in the day’s work. Indeed, one gentleman, named Mr. Kapoppolous, a Greek, I think, I hear has went into grand opera. Well, I guess maybe he will benefit from the change. Some of the other men have large families and are married. Of course, the life is sort of bohemian, but then you know an artist has no rules of convention. On the whole, I would not recommend comic postcard modeling as a career for a young girl. It is hazardous at the best and I have heard stories, although I cannot say I Well, anyhow, as I was hand- ing his hat back to him one night, I noticed a gent giving me the eye. “Girlie,” he said, “would you like to make a nice piece of change?” I replied lightly that I guessed I was no bigger a fool than lots, little thinking what he meant, and he told me to come around to a certain address the next day and ask for a certain Mr. Jones. ELL, I suppose it was woman's curiosity that made me do it, for there I was the next day in a studio. Mr. Jones told me it was an artist's studio and how would I like to pose for art photographs which would appear in higt class magazines—nothing dis- respectful, he said, but only maybe a little playful. Then he named a sum of money which made me gasp and would you too, if I told you. Only I am not such a boob. Well, I signed sort of a contract and I will say it was easy work, get- ting there about eleven and working until four. It was months before I found out the truth. And then it was too late for I had signed the contract. « “It's Easy If You Know How"—ah, ves! But is the casiest way always the SAFEST? have ever seen anything hap- pen that could not have just as well have happened anywhere else. Still and all, it is taking a chance for a young girl to have to tell the man who asks her to take on the sweetest job it is ever a woman's privilege to take on—a wife—that she was once a comic postcard model, Of course I have enough money now, enough for such little luxuries as a real kit —for I am ahomt girl at heart and never give up the hope that some day my woman's touch will mean everything to some good man. I don't know, though «+ sit looks like it will always be a artistic career for me with all its loneliness, A girl has to choose between their career and a hearth and kiddies, It is the price I have to pay, I guess. The next time your boy- friend sends you a_ postcard from Point Lookout or Keens- burg or Altoona showing a bathing girl being bitten by a lobster with the title, “Lots of Good Things Around Here,” think of me, for in all likeli- hood it will be my photograph. But don’t, I beg you from the bottom of my heart, think of me as anything but a good girl! comicbooks.com a