Life, 1925-09-10 · page 13 of 41
Life — September 10, 1925 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Joseph L. Gonnick, President of the Joseph L. Gonnick Cantilever Bridge Company, who donated a large municipal playground to the city. The accompanying photograph shows a dramatic mountain gorge with a banner reading "YOUR DAUGHTER IS SAFE ON A GONNICK BRIDGE!" The satire operates on two levels: First, it mocks Gonnick's self-promotional advertising disguised as philanthropy—the bridge company's safety slogan appears prominently in what should be straightforward news coverage. Second, it suggests the playground donation is similarly motivated by commercial interest rather than genuine civic virtue. The juxtaposition implies Gonnick uses charitable acts primarily to market his bridges and engineering company to the public.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*PICTURES *PRIZES *PUNCH <<— DAILY LIFE i Gonnick Donates Park for Kiddies + — terday when 3,618 letters of ad- Bridge King Sets Aside Great Tract in Heart of City as Memorial to Girl-Ward = * A new municipal playground with a capacity of thirty thousand school children playing simultaneously was yesterday donated by Joseph L. Gonnick, President of the Joseph L. Gonnick Cantilever Bridge Company, in memory of his adopted daughter, Jessie Louise Kwupp. It will be known as the “Jo- seph L. President Of The Joseph L. Gonnick Canti- lever Bridge Company In Mem- { s Louise Kwupp yground And Mu- a tha Stanton Throat, Regional President of the Fed- eration of Hylan Five-Cent Fare Clubs, last night accepted the gift by telegraph in the absence from New York of James R. Ceiling, Supervisor of Play- grounds and Bal- loons, who is in | the city on busi- ness, The property, which extends from the Bre- voort Hotel in | lower Fifth Ave- nue to Morning- cowen's Side Heights, will entail the demol- ishing of many of New York’s famous landmarks. The Public at Forty-second Street fth Avenue, the Wool- e and Ten Cent Store, the Columbia Theatre, scene of Booth’s and Barrett’s many tri- umphs, the world-known Nedick Orange Drink Stand at Colum- bus Circle, together with the famous statue of the Great Emancipator in the Circle itself, will become merely memories like Madison Square Garden and Staten Island, Perhaps the greatest loss to the city’s tra- ditions will be the razing of 1 Pa The plans for the Gonnick playground and municipal park call for an en- tirely new physical appearance of the district included in the gift, “Ido not wish to bea es way or Indian giver,” said Mr. Gonnick last night in, the Man- hattan Bridge Club. “I plan to make it the most up-to-date playground in the world. After all, boys and girls are little more than children and must be encouraged and helped accord- ingly. They are little citizens in the making and I want every- | thing to be the best. “In order to do this I would | like the public to help me spend my money well. Letters of ad- vice from the public will be wel- | come and all suggestions will be treated confidentially.” Public interest in Mr. Gon- nick’s plan was noticeable yes- vice were received even before the announcement was made. One writer wanted to buy a lighthouse, while another, a widow, wanted a hundred dol- lars with which to open a little beer saloon on the Boston Post Road. Funds to carry them over temporarily were sent to each, The gift of the Memorial Park is regarded by many as the final chapter of Gonnick’s sensa- tional adoption of the su posedly fourteen-year-old gypsy girl last Christmas Eve. The discovery that Jessie Louise was really thirty-eight years old in- stead of fourteen and the an- nulling of the adoption caused a sensation in diplomatic circles the following morning. Jessie Louise’s own story of the gift park will begin to- morrow and appear exclusively in DAILY LIFE, “I will tell the whole truth,” said Jessie Louise as she ac- cepted the check, “and can promise you sensational devel- opments that will blast reput tions among people who thin they can get by with murder.” A. E. KRIM HONORED FEZ.—Abd - el - Krim, Riff leader, was today elected to the French Academy (the “Im- mortals”). MERRY kiddies will soon frolic in this big Municipal Park, gift to the city of Joseph L. Gonnick, bridge king. Gutzon Borglum, noted sculptor, has been com- missioned to carve a mammoth head of Mr. Gonnick on rock at left. comicbooks.com