Life, 1926-05-13 · page 43 of 52
Life — May 13, 1926 — page 43: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1926 *Life* magazine page contains three main pieces: **"Fairy Story"** (top): A satirical tale by Henry William Hanemann mocking the California gold-rush fantasy. A Californian knight tries to maintain a luxurious lifestyle his wife demands, but fails financially. He becomes a blacksmith, yet locals resent his "obvious superiority." The couple quarrels endlessly. The joke ridicules both the myth of easy California wealth and the presumption that refined people can simply relocate and prosper. **"Twenty Years After"** (middle): Wilbur L. Jones humorously catalogs how automobiles transformed from mere transportation (1906) into status symbols and lifestyle accessories (1926)—beauty parlors, salons, observation platforms. It satirizes consumer culture's inflation of the car's social importance. **Brief note on Rockefeller**: A quip suggesting John D. Rockefeller's caddy quit over inadequate pay (a "dime"), mocking the wealthy's stinginess. The page is otherwise advertisements (FADA Radio, Mollé shaving cream). The satire targets 1920s materialism, status anxiety, and the automobile's cultural dominance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘AIRY STORY—Once there was a Californian who would rather have lived in New York. i \ ~~ A Jirat [ational Picture sS67 He did his noble best, but it took all he could drag off and away from his encounters to keep the palace (which she had picked out as theirs) going. His armor grew thin in spots. Finally, he came to after one severe joust, and found that he was minus his mount and that his armor had been sold to a passing junkman. Then the Dean of the College of Heraldry, to whom a knight-errant is only a conditioned student of chivalry, sent him the official raspberry, gules, with third or final notice. Thus disbarred, the once knight- errant started a bang-up little forge by a busy highway, where he maintained a service-station for battle-scarred paladins, He beat a nasty rivet. But the yokelry resented his obvious superiority. His customers felt, like- wise, that a smith who presumed to approximate their own haughty level was a presumptuous caitiff. The maiden said she was a fool to have thought he was a fairy Prince at all. He told her it was too con- founded bad that she hadn't known it in the first place. And they fought about it for days and days. Henry William Hanemann, Twenty Years After IX 1906 the automobile was merely a vehicle. In 1926 the automobile is: a chef d’ceuvre of the electroplater's, engraver’s and upholsterer’s art a gala display of electric lighting and signaling devices (reminiscent of a flagship of the Atlantic Fleet at a Fourth of July celebration) a beauty parlor aconservatory a traveling bench-and-kennel show the modern equivalent of the old- fashioned parlor and davenport a salon a saloon (for children, at the lake or seashore) a bath house an express train an express wagon a gypsy caravan fisherman's necessary equipment hunter’s ditto bandit’s ditto an important contributor to the death rate an observation car for viewing sign- boards (on a no-parking street) a vexatious problem (in and about New York on any fine Sunday) a waiting room. Wilbur L. Jones. OHN D. ROCKEFELLER has de- cided to limit himself to four holes of golf daily. Probably his caddy re- fused to work any more for a dime. THE 1926 NEUTROLETTE $8500 A five-tube, Tuned Radio Frequency Receiver plus the Neutrodyne ii inpecrencas handsome mahogany case. “Listen-In” to Logic TH purpose of this advertisement _is to induce you co compare the New 1926 FADA Neutrolette at $85 with other good sets, cost- ing two and three times as much. Com; it thoroughly for clarity, selectiv- ity, er ee Sod all other desirable qualities.” Any FADA Dealer will gladly ar- range a demonstration. Incidentally you can get the ils story by sending the coupon for our complimentary —“FADA RADIO—The Standard of Reception’. F. A. D. ANDREA, INC. 1581 Jerome Avenue New York, N.Y. Massfactarers of TUNED RADIO FREQUENCY Receivers ‘esing the highly oficieat NEUTRODYNE principle, F. A.D. ANDREA INC, 1581 Jerome Avense, New York, N. Y., Dept. W. Please send “FADA. RADCO tha frandied sf LL of the invaluable soothing, cool- ealin; of the fin fe) Each MOLLE shave adds its beneficent touch to face. Each shave gives grateful relief from all the usual shaving discomforts—skin dryness, smarting, burning. And, too, a MOLLE shave leaves such a delightful after-feel of face comfort that lotions or talcums are never needed. Get a tube of MOLLE, use it according. to the’ simple directions, (no lather, brush or rubbing in required) and learn how great an improvement is this hy- _ gienic way to shave. 5 diver. cefr to ry i before you b it, trial tube TanDaeses be iw PRYDE-WYNN CO. NEWBRIGHTON, PA. comicbooks.com