Life, 1926-02-11 · page 7 of 40
Life — February 11, 1926 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page celebrates working women through poetry and humor. The top cartoon shows an artist painting a bathing-girl cover while a model poses—satirizing the objectification of women in commercial art while simultaneously participating in it. "The Professional" narrative mocks a waiter named Pierre who affects French sophistication to impress customers, despite being from Kansas. The satire targets class pretension and the performative nature of service work. The poem "The Working Girl" by Roger Burlingame praises independent women—those with jobs, education, and modern attitudes (wearing long hair, rejecting stockings). It celebrates their intellectual engagement and financial independence while gently mocking the wealthy women they contrast against. The final cartoon references Cinderella, suggesting working girls might achieve upward mobility through hard work.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
an Model: say, WHAT'S THE IDEA OF KEEPIN’ ME HERE ALL DAY? Artist: PATIENCE, YOUNG LADY, PATIENCE. I'VE GOT TO FINISH THIS BATHING GIRL COVER FOR THE AUGUST Issue OF Hot Stuff. The Professional “DIERRE,” I asked, “how did you happen to break into this game?” He shifted his napkin with magnificent dexterity “Well, monsieur, if you are really interested. You see, my real name is not Pierre but Joe Glontz. I was born in Salina, Kansas, and attended the State University. It was there I got my start by waiting on tables at the Sigma Mu house to work my way th college. I seemed to have a natural gift for waiting on table comparatively short time I was considered the best waiter at the University of Kansas. By the middle of my junior year I had received several offers to turn professional.” He sighed in reminiscence as he whisked away my coffee cup and substituted a finger bowl with consummate skill “Yes, monsicur, that was the turning point in my career—when | Life The Working Girl [ LIKE girls; I like Who wear their hair I Wh The ones w J have chaperons; And I like not roll their stockings I like, Poor My f but then the r cy, all bedewed w I like a cosmic girl with thought pre I like cosmetic girls with ruby | And if she scorns the moc r sips At random cocktails; reads papers, dips the And if I find her views on ar In politics or rur And if she rips pon the sad ellipse tic verse; if she abc ox, I find, do what I I like her still. I like girls (I like the sex) The es who argue and the ones The lazy ones, the ones ord. ck The cradle or the home; wh ck Or shudder at a needle ; th ck At thought of labor, or who don a smock And paint I like them, ve My budget. I should s Or roses, which are Of dani or expensive food and T like them all, I find, yet when I Of pearls and things, combined v (Ah, that Close in its shac a deeper thing, a Give me the o turned professional. I owe my success in life to my college education.” Tears suffused his eyes so that he Historic Working Girls could scarcely see to present my check ‘es, monsicur, when I've finished the season here this fall and worked the winter season at the Royal Palms, | shall have achieved the last hundred thousand I set myself to earn. Then I shall return to my university for my bachelor’s degree.” When T recovered my senses I re membered that somehow I'd tipped him five dollars. Robert Lord. IRST PARTN help Seconp Partner: Sure; where is she? R: Let's fire all the Cinderella opens “The Glass Slipper Club.” comicbooks.com