Life, 1926-12-02 · page 29 of 81
Life — December 2, 1926 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This humorous article by Robert Benchley satirizes the real polar expeditions of Richard Byrd and Roald Amundsen, who successfully reached the North Pole in 1926. Benchley's fictional "Life magazine expedition" aims to bicycle to the Pole—a deliberately absurd alternative to flying. The satire mocks the media frenzy around polar exploration: the narrator's crew is devastated to learn they've been "beaten" despite being practically there, and they're discouraged that the *New York Times* won't publish more expedition articles. The turning point comes when Ensign Thermaline argues their unique contribution—being the *first to bicycle* across the Pole—still matters, reviving their spirits through patriotic singing. The joke targets both the obsessive competition among explorers and the press's appetite for sensational adventure narratives. By replacing a genuine, dangerous achievement with an impossible, absurd one, Benchley ridicules how expeditions had become more about publicity than actual accomplishment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
(LIFE’S “Polar T tHe Hop-orr or Life’s Potar Exrepition, Scarspare, N. Y. (Second Lap)—Here we are, much to our surprise, all set for the second big lap on our ex- pedition to the North Pole by bi- cycle, begun last spring. Those of you with a scien- tific turn of mind who have followed us thus far will re- member that we were held up in my home in Scars- dale by a lost nut and that, by the time we were ready to start on again, news had come of the so- called successful completion of the Byrd and Amund- sen expeditions. MAP Life’s’ rovar THE positive as- JUNE WHEN surance that we had been beaten in the race to the Pole, with our goa! practically within pedaling distance, you might say, was nat- urally very depressing. Licutenant- Commander Connelly took the thing particularly to heart, as he had so wanted us to be first. We found him that afternoon in the Bronx River Parkway, kicking a tree much bigger than himself and_half-sob- bing, half-laughing: ‘*Darn-darn- -darn!” and “You old tree, I myself was quite disheartened but tried not to show it to the brave boys who had come so far and had shown such splendid spirit. So I proposed that we go back to the house and sing some songs. I wish that you might have seen the will with which the rest of the crew took up my suggestion, and have heard the room ring with the “Upidee” and “Solomon Levi” we finally got down to it. Lieute; Commander Connelly and Ensign Thermaline sang tenor. It was Ensign Thermaline who SHOWING THE SCARSDALE (N. Y.) REACHED BY EXPEDITION A MIssi PEDED PROGRESS, NOW BEING MADE FROM HERE. Otristmes T, 7 (7S Number 27 Expedition Glops Off Again! By ‘Robert Benchley finally spoke the words which gave us new courage to continue on our expedition in spite of the self-styled winners, Byrd and Amundsen. “Why should we stop,” he asked, toppling off piano bench, “just because some wise-cracking avi- ators have flown over the Pole? Our aim was not to fly. It was to bicycle. That popular interest in polar expeditions has. died down should mean noth- ing to us. That the New York Times will not take any more ex- pedition articles until it uses up those it has on hand means noth- ing to us. We can get to the Pole and back before the George Palmer Putnam series has even been got together in book form. We can still be the first to bicycle across the Pole—and, by the Eternal, we will!” POINT AT LAST NG NUT IM- NEW HOP-OFF T this we were on our feet and cheering. Rosa brought in a plate of hermits and we sat over these until far into the nightimaking plans forour second dash to the Pole, It was decided that, since the Put- nam expedition on the Morrissey was being written up by Mr. Putnam's little boy David, we should take my little boy Bobby along as official yeo- man and that all reports should be written by him. He is seven, and no one, not even his teacher, can read his writing; so he seemed practically ideal. We also decided that we ought to have names for our bicycles (like the Putnam's “Morrissey” ,and Lieuten- ant-Commander Connelly _immedi- ately chose “The O'Toole” for his, and Ensign Thermaline ‘Mavour- neen” for his. Mine was to be “The Banshee.” The next thing to do was to buy a small bicycle for Bobby, and, believe it or not, it took until just this week to find one small enough. However, Scarsdale was very pleasant during the summer and we all were very happy and brave, and here we are ready to start to-morrow, “rain or shine,” as Lieutenant-Commander Connelly ex- pressed it, laughing to hide his tears, “WE CAN STILL BE THE FIRST TO BICYCLE ACROSS THE POLE—AND, BY THE ETERNAL, WE WILL!” comicbooks.com