Life, 1926-08-26 · page 20 of 41
Life — August 26, 1926 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century journalism sensationalism through two pieces: **Top cartoon**: Depicts backseat drivers shouting contradictory, panicked instructions at a driver—"Keep down to twenty miles," "Step on it!", "Dim yer headlights," "Look out for the train!" The satire mocks people who give constant, conflicting, unhelpful advice while not driving themselves. **Main story "All the News That's Print to Fit"**: A police reporter phones a mundane suicide story to a rewrite man, who sensationalizes it absurdly. The reporter mentions "Lizzie D" (a hash-house worker who turned to the Follies), while the rewrite man fabricates melodramatic details—transforming her into a "beautiful actress" with a "luxuriant boudoir," adding invented poetry and mystery detectives. **The satire**: Life mocks how newspapers transform ordinary tragedies into sensational fiction through editorial embellishment, showing the gap between actual events and printed "news." **Bottom section**: A brief joke about beauty shop workplace exploitation (unpaid overtime).
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
keep down to twenty miles an hour ! Dim yer headlights train Coming! 1 “All the News That’s Print to Fit” (The Veteran Police Reporter Phones a Story to the High-Pressure Rewrite Man) s¢ 9970, Bill. Harya this morning? Swell little L party last night, huh?...Well, here's pretty cheap little yarn, Bill; not much class. Dame’s name is Lizzie, D for dog, Loon —L for Lilly, O for Oscar, O for Oscar, N for nuts. Lizzie D, Loon; pretty much of a bum ....Seems that Lizzie had been rassling the dirty tinware in a hash-house down in the Vil- lage—make her an art student if you want to, Bill—and she got fed up on the racket and moved up- town to make a stab at the Follies and ended up dead - broke. Kinda — tough on Lizzie.... Sa + who was mamma you was drs ging aroun’ last night, Bill?...Well, gettin’ back to poor ol’ Liz- zie. Sh about — thirt eight, by the way.... Lizzie decided to bump her- ro Vivien: ou! THe Beauty Shop Secrets Marie: Wiy pip THAT NEW MASSEUSE QUIT AFTER THE FIRST pay? BOSS KISSED HER AFTER FIVE O’CLOCK AND WOULDN’T PAY HER OVERTIME For IT! self off, and she took a room in a cheap room- ing-house and turned on the gas. Seems like the old gal was a poct; Bill; you know, nuts on the subjick....So Lizzie left a cute little pome— wrote it herself—on the back of her laundry ticket. Here it is, Bill; get it, it’s good: Quote —There is no flock—flocka ducks, flocka jack, you get the idea, Bill—there is no flock however watched and tended comma. ..Capital B for bat, But one dead lamb — L for _ licherish, A for apple, M for mother, B for booze— but one dead lamb is there sema - colyon; ain’t it rich, Bill? Third line. Capital T for tom— There is no fireside com- ma howso’er —wait till I spell that; means how so e’er, Bill, ex- cept there’s a what-you-call- it, asterisk, or something like that, in the If Back-Seat Driving Shoul} Spr place of the V for v no fireside comma Last line. Capital B fr bul vacant chair period, end fa zat, Bill?...Lamp?...} lamb—L for leg, A for ) ananas ; Lamb, little shplets- » kid?... Well, anywog the dame to the hospi i Now ain’t that ni Hey, me, will yuh? Aloysius P for pickles FI Lucei found the lady hospital. An’ get thei Whereupon Bill, stov the Saturday Evening P and knocks out the foll the City Editor te “Her heart torn b: to pose as an artist's m ing, Miss Lizette De 1 chorus girl, sought solscepr an exclusive uptown spat “On the brink of known, Mlle. De I means ‘Of the Moon’) § she penned a tearful fe torn scrap of perfumed 4 “Detectives Alec Fi Lubic, who found th luxuriant boudoir, dis» composed by the dying § of strength. It po beautiful actress had » comicbooks.com