Life, 1926-03-04 · page 24 of 40
Life — March 4, 1926 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* satirizes American hypocrisy and social contradictions of the 1920s: **"The Revival at Lemont"** mocks religious leaders who preach against worldly pleasures while practicing them. Five pastors sermonize against golf and motoring on Sundays, yet play golf themselves. When they close churches to "starve" parishioners into virtue, the town experiences relief rather than repentance—exposing the gap between clergy rhetoric and behavior. **"The Perfect Radio Program"** (repeated twice) jokes about commercial radio's unreliability: Henry Trigwiller vanishes before delivering a business ethics speech, yet receives only 15 cents on the dollar from creditors. The absurdity satirizes both radio's newness and corporate malfeasance. **Minor items** ("Degree of Danger," "Nubbville Spark," "Business Progress") offer brief social commentary on childhood fearlessness, radio evangelism's materialism, and dynastic business complacency. **"Bituminous Skywriting"** and the Republican platform comment mock pollution and political whitewashing—coal miners' dust pollution and politicians' cosmetic platform construction. The overall tone critiques institutional hypocrisy and the gap between professed and actual values.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
This is Station MEOW. I have been asked to announce that Henry P. Trigwiller will not be with us to- night to deliver his address on “The Golden Rule in Business.” Mr. Trigwiller has been missing since Tuesday. The creditors will receive fifteen cents on the dollar. HE pastors of the five churches in the lovely town of Lemont had a comp! a their congre gations, On Sunday people played So by solemn agreem the five pas tors severally preached to congregations present against the sins and wayward ness of the congregations absent. But fe still played golf on Sunday the pe vent motoring. ext, the five pastors after a con ference began a campaign to popularize golf p sional preached in the Methodist pulpit their Sunday services. ofes for instance; an automobile salesman sang several solos in the Presbyterian Church, a tertained with classic dancing. The re sult was that th played golf and Then, conferences, the Lutheran pastor said We shall quit tr if it were a luxury. Relig i the Episcopalians were en on Sunday ring. Ily, in one of the Monday ‘© sell religion as ways been an elemental need men, If there were no churches they would create churches to satisfy their need Therefore let's the churches away from them temporarily. Let's starve them into a convic n of the sin of waywardness. Said the rector, “My Note what J to men’s desire for intoxicat- Episcopai her has a grand idea. happer in liquors when such liquors were Degree of Danger OROTHY, age five, was coming home from kindergarten, accom- panied by another five-year-old. She arrived home in the midst of a terrific thunderstorm. Asked if she had been frightened at the storm, she said "On, I Gladys was—and I was walking on the of the walk, right next to it, wasn't half as scared as Nubbville Spark CONSPICUOUS late-model fool is the radio fan who can convince himself that the broadcastin’ of Easter sermons will keep his wife from wantin’ a new bonnet. RACK TO FARTH denied them by law. Let us close our ch doors.” And so the doors were shut and Consternation reigned in the quict town, and there was much n, Aiter atime Sunday played gv H.C placarded vocifero discuss This is Station MEOW. We have received 1,036 copies of the follow- ing telegram: “Program coming in fine.” The names and addresses of the senders are unimportant. Business Progress THE heir to the business had saun- I tered in from his two and a half rs among the ash trays, had looked dat three-thirty had his mail. c for the day. Jo you remember,” asked the sil ver-haired bookkeeper of the cashier, ‘how his father used to scheme to get away once baseball game?” ye attend the open. ing Bituminous Skywriting UDGING from the condition of the atmosphere in most of our large cities recently, the motto of the soft-coal miners during a hard-coal strike should be: “Excuse Our Dust.” HE Republican platform in 1928 will probably be constructed of aluminum, liberally whitewashed. comicbooks.