Life, 1925-11-26 · page 18 of 44
Life — November 26, 1925 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features a satirical diary entry from "Mrs. Peps" (Lizzie Smith of West 72nd Street, New York) dated October 29th-30th. The accompanying caricature depicts "Nubbyville Spark" — appearing to mock a pretentious or affected male figure, likely satirizing urban social pretension. The diary discusses the author's observations about modern illustrators, a secondhand coat purchased from Marjorie Worth, and various social encounters. There's a map labeled "Treasure Island" and references to radio broadcasts and social events. The satire appears to target early 20th-century urban middle-class affectations, social climbing, and the nouveaux riches's attempts at sophistication. The cartoonish illustration emphasizes this mockery through exaggerated features, typical of Life magazine's satirical approach to contemporary American society and manners.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The chiropodist, masseuse and hair-dresser with me all the morning, and during their ministra- 29th tions I did ponder many things, in especial the state into which belles-lettres have fallen, what with our greatest men boasting they can read nought but detective yarns, and our newsstands florid with magazines for morons. Yet the school which does most active battle against this situation does lean too far in another direction, methinks, for Lord! I have been reading and secing so much in print and on the stage which I could not make head nor tail of that I do begin to long for a book or a play to start out, My name is Lizzie Smith—I live in West 72nd Street, New York—This is a story about myself, and I am going to stick to it. And as for what our modern illustrators are up to, there was once a time when I thought I had no talent for drawing soever, but from some of the curious illustrations in our modern periodicals, I think I might now make out at it nicely as a profession. ---Did on the new coat which I did buy second-hand from Marjorie Worth, lit- erally ripping it off her back because of my admira- tion for it and its suitability to my needs, and then to an inn for luncheon with Fluff Bascom, who did tell me of the difficulty they are hav- ing with her brother-in-law, a poor wretch who imbibes too freely, gets into deplor- able escapades, and feigns deafness so that all their be- ratings are apparently lost upon him. But as he is a bachelor who has tended his inheritance, it is not wise for them to go too far.... Dined this night at the Roosevelt, and afterwards to the radio station atop, where Mr. Isaacson did invite me to speak into the micro- phone, but I could think of none of the many things I have frequently longed to tell the world save that hostesses should not be allowed to hide rolls in dinner napkins, NUBBVILLE SPARK DIOG DUMBLETON CLAIMS THAT THE TROUBLE WITH A LOT OF FOLKS TO-DAY IS THAT THEY ARE SO SET IN THEIR BELIEFS THEY WON'T LISTEN TO BOTH SIDES OF ANYTHING BUT A PHONO- GRAPH DISC. A book come on the first post with the inscrip- October °° O° 2 bs tion “To Mrs. Pep, who likes Michael Arlen, 30th from Carl Van Vechten, who likes Ouida,” and it was the reprint of “The Tale of a City,” with an intro- duction wrote by Carl in which he does point out how many of our glamourous modern writers derive directly from the woman who made so much copy from the trappings of this world, which is interesting in that Carl himself is no shabby slouch when he sits down before his typewriter....Lydia Loomis to luncheon, in the handsomest caracal and sable coat that ever I saw in my life, and perfumed with a subtle, delicate scent which I longed to know the name of, but did not ask, holding that every woman's right is secrecy as to her toilet accessories and her dressmaker, And Lyd. did TREASURE ISLAND tell me how she had bought a victoria at an auction for five dollars and sent it as a Christmas present to the Ormsbees, who are gone to Bermuda to live, but I daresay they will be glad to have it, no motor cars being allowed on the island, and then the joke will be on Lydia. We fell a-talking, too, of silly subjects, such as what the only article we could take to a desert island would be, Lyd. voting for a radio set and I for my dressing-table tweezers....The Bannings dinner, and then several of us with Mistress Curtis to the opening of The County a new night club, finding “Chic” Sale amongst the evening’s entertainers, so, foras- much as his impersonations of rural characters have always delighted me, and forasmuch as I did recently read that he was born in Urbana, Illinois, I made bold to ask him if it could have been his brother with whom I used to go to some of the fraternity dances, and it was. Which pleased me mightily, and gave Sam a welcome chance to hold forth on my speaking to persons to whom I have not been introduced. Baird Leonard. comicbooks.com