Life, 1925-12-17 · page 26 of 40
Life — December 17, 1925 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate humorous pieces typical of 1920s satirical magazine content: **"Conversation at Dinner"** satirizes movie title writers who speak in overwrought, flowery language. The husband responds to mundane domestic situations with purple prose ("Hair like shredded heaven," flowers as "living speech bursting from the lips of dear, dead women"). The joke is that he applies melodramatic movie-title language to everyday life while ignoring his wife's practical concerns—she wants flowers for the table and a new hat, but receives only romantic nonsense. This mocks both Hollywood's excessive sentimentality and husbands who evade real issues through verbosity. **"Three's a Crowd"** is a brief joke about urban commerce: three debt collectors (radio store, furniture store, vacuum cleaner company) converge in an accident, each pursuing installment payments. It reflects 1920s consumer culture and the proliferation of "buy now, pay later" schemes. **"Choice Cut"** features a bride asking a butcher for mincemeat from a "young mince"—treating the animal as if it were a proper noun, revealing her naïveté about butchery. The page also includes a financial report for Life's Fresh Air Fund charity camps.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ii VE NERNEY Joan: Peter: YOUR MOTHER SMOKE: MY MOTHER Says ladics DON I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LADIES. SMOKE. 1 ONLY KNOW WHAT mothers Do. Conversation at Dinner Between a Movie Title Writer and His Wife HE: How is the steak, Harold? Is steak is as tender as a woman's heart, as tender as the smile of a mother upon her new-born babe. Sune: Harold, that big blonde up- stairs moved out to-day. I'm glad I've scen the last of her peroxide mop. He: She had hair like sun-kissed gold. Hair that floated past man’s de- lighted ion like an ocular benedic- tion from the gods. Hair like shredded heaven, St What does the boss say about raising your salary? He: On that subject he is as quiet as a dead desert wrapped in the mantle of midnight, as quiet as the rosy-tinted dawn, Sue: Then that means I don't get my new hat. He: I am indeed sorry, for a woman without a hat is like moonlight with- out lovers, like a rainbow without a dreamer, like a flower without the sun, Sue: Harold, you don't pay a bit of attention to what I tell you. You for- got to bring home the cut flowers I wanted for the dinner table. He: Flowers are but living speech bursting up through the ground from the lips of dear, dead women. Sue: Oh, say, our minister was here to-day collecting for the South Sea Island missionary fund. He: Ah, yes. Out where the coral- atolled, palm-leafed, cocoanut-ballasted islands lie in the arms of their lover— the sun. Out where the festive “Uke” pours its soul into the flower-drunken breezes. Out—— Sue: Oh, Harold, here comes Mother and the family. They will expect their What shall we do? He: Down where the eternal fires roar out a never-ending symphony of hate. Down sulphurous blasts Sue: strumming dinner, where the Harold! Edward McNamee. Three’s a Crowd ‘O were those men that had the wreck down the street this after- noon?” “A collector from the radio store ran into the installment collector from the furniture store, while dodging the man from the vacuum cleaner office.” Choice Cut BRIDE (at butcher shop): I want half a pound of mincemeat, and cut it from a nice, tender young mince, please. Lire's Fresh Air Fund WE are happy to present the fol- lowing financial statement of our summer Camps at Branchville, Conn, and at Pottersville, J. Through your generous aid we were able to put into practice a new and _ progressive program, which, testified to by the im- proved health and happiness of our numerous small guests, we hope to con- tinue, and augment, in 1926, Receipts and Disbursements Season 1925 Receipts Contributions Income from Endowments, from Marion Storey, James Buchanan Brady and Reserve Funds, and from Bank Deposits.... Anonymous _ contribution for. improvements and equipment Refunds and allowances... $30,348.25 5,876.78 1,969.00 38.32 38, Balance on hand at close of Season, 1924...+..+++ DisBURSEMENTS Transportation . Food... Supplies Laundry Insurance Telephone, Power Repairs : Improvements and Equip: ment : Postage and’ Printing Miscellaneous Transferred 3.49134 1,982.08 235.36 $37,596.85 1,243.73 “$38,840.58 COMMUNITY SPIRIT comicbooks.com