Life, 1926-09-09 · page 25 of 40
Life — September 9, 1926 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This story satirizes yellow journalism and the era's scandal-hungry media. Mrs. Blatz, a society wife, carefully orchestrates her husband's murder while simultaneously selling the salacious details to competing newspapers—the *Daily Blah* and *Daily Bloop*. The joke's tragedy: she's "scooped" when a rival paper publishes the story first, including photographs, before she can even commit the crime. The competing newspapers and her hired entourage (photographer, reporter, undertaker, detective) emphasize how the *real* scandal is the press's obsession with intimate details over actual events. The cartoon below, "His Master's Choice," shows a dog playing with its owner—a simple domestic moment contrasting sharply with the melodramatic scheming above. The page also includes brief jokes about Follies dancers and lobsters' mating habits, typical of *Life* magazine's humor spanning society scandals to natural science.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Scooped T Mrs, Samucl Blatz, blonde, beautiful A wife of Samuel Blatz, President of the Blatz Bolt and Nut Corporation, was pacing the floor of her husband's office in nervous fury. She had made an ap- pointnent to kill Mr, Blatz at 2:15, but that gentleman, with his customary lack of consideration for her, was late. Men are so treacherous. It had been a hectic day for Mrs. Blatz. At 10:30 am. she had called on the editor of the Daily Blah with her diary, a work replete with the racy details of the intimate relations Samuel Blatz and his beautiful, blonde see! y, Miss Eva Le Plume. The Blah had made a very substantial offer for first serial rights. At 10:15 she had held a consultation with her attorne: tween 11 and 12 she had engaged a photographer, an undertaker, a reporter, an artist, a detective, a taxicab driver and a policeman, Then, after a to the beauty parlor and lunch with the artist who was to illustrate her work, she had taken axicab direetly to her hus- band’s office, arriving there at In ne, then, her state of chagrin at 2:30, with the photographer, the reporter, the artist, the undertaker, the detective, the policeman and the taxicab driver all wailing impatiently outside the door, and Blatz—the brute !—late, as usual, Suddenly the door opened. Blatz raised her ivory-handled re- volver, but it was only Jenkins, the city editor of the Daily Blah. His face was suffused with anger, and in his hands was a copy of the Daily Bloop, his afternoon . off!" he shouted. and fell into a ch the brute!” she moaned. His Master's Choice Dusty the Pup: vv sx’? OFTEN 1 CAN GET THE Boss TO PLAY WITIL ME LIKE THIS! “The brute! I might have known that he wouldn’t show any considera- tion for me!” The Bloop carried a smiling, three- un photograph of the beautiful, ble Miss Eva Le Plume. It was running, also, the first chapter of her diary, a work replete with the racy details of her intimate relations with Samuel Blatz. Miss Le Plume had successfully shot Mr, Blatz to death an hour before. Asia Kagowan. Will It Come to This? “\ HAT were those two Follies girls fighting about?" “One of them stepped on the other's skirt.” ROFESSOR JULIAN HUX- I.EY has discovered that lobsters make love; which, of course, is no news to chorus girls. IF MEN COULD HAVE THEIR FACES LIFTED. comicbooks.com