Life, 1926-06-17 · page 19 of 44
Life — June 17, 1926 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The top illustration satirizes summer theater audiences adopting scanty "chorus girl" fashion. The joke is "turn about is fair play"—if chorus girls expose themselves on stage, audiences will reciprocate by dressing similarly, creating an absurd visual. The main article is a humorous letter from Pike Peters, a garage owner in Oklahoma, who wants to sell theatrical ideas to Broadway. He's inspired by "Hatrack" (a scandalous 1926 H.L. Mencken story adapted for stage) and offers a pricing scheme: one-tenth royalties for "printable" scandals, one-fifth for material "that can't be talked about before women." The satire mocks both small-town entrepreneurship and Broadway's appetite for salacious content. The bottom cartoon shows the irony of modern credulity: one character dismisses newspaper reports as unreliable, yet believes whatever appears on billboards—a jab at advertising's persuasive power over journalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Broatway J, 3 (’@ Number TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY THE AUDIENCE AT A SUMMER REVUE ADOPTS THE CHORUS STYLE OF DRESS. Clearwater, Oklahoma (The Biggest Little City in the World.) SEE by the public newspapers that “Hatrack” is going | to be made into a stage play for Broadway, N. Y., and T am writing this to say that I would like to get in on some of this easy money myself, because formerly I was in the livery stable business and have plenty of dramatic material for the N. Y. theatres. Also I could tip the N. Y. theatres off to plenty of other similar things which happen around here and they could put them into plays without having to wait for them to be published in a magazine and could get a scoop on the rest of Broad- way that is asleep at the switch. Being so busy with my cash garage I never realized before that plays could be made out of such things, but now it seems that there is a quick turnover in such ideas. Even if my Pawnee Garage is doing the best business this spring it has ever done, a fellow can always use a little more money, no differ- ence how clean his books are, and so I thought I would. go into the business of sup- From Pike Peters HE NO LONGER CARRIES WATER ON BOTH SHOULDERS plying ideas for the theatres, because lots of things happen out here that ought to work into something just as good as the big box car scene, and the beauty of it is that they are all fresh and new as no paper would print them. I will make the following arrangement with the right kind of theatrical manager, to-wit: for a happen- ing that can be printed and talked about before women I would be willing to accept only one- tenth; but for a happening that can’t be talked about before women but would make fine play material I should expect one-fifth, subject to renewal. Would be pleased to hear from any theatrical manager meaning business. Telegraph office open till midnight, also have Farmers’ phone. Yours for a quick turnover, Pike Peters, (Owner and proprictor of the Pawnee Garage. Free air and postcards.) Homer Croy. Hopeless IFF: Silly! You believe that because you saw it in the newspaper. Garr: Not on your life. I saw it on a billboard, comicbooks.com