Life, 1926-12-30 · page 30 of 37
Life — December 30, 1926 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines two advertisements with a subscription pitch for *Life* magazine. **Left side:** A Gastrogen Tablets ad (Bristol-Myers Co.) promoting an antacid that supposedly stops working once it neutralizes stomach acid, unlike regular baking soda which can leave excess alkaline residue. The ad emphasizes the product's self-limiting action—a selling point for 1926 consumers concerned about over-medication. **Right side:** *Life* magazine's New Year subscription promotion (1927). It lists famous contemporary humorists and cartoonists—Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Percy Crosby, John Held Jr., and others—as regular contributors. The pitch equates subscribing to the magazine with ensuring family happiness and entertainment for the coming year. **The implicit humor:** Pairing a digestive aid ad with a happiness-promoting magazine subscription creates an unintentional joke: one product stops discomfort, the other starts it—suggesting readers need both remedies to survive 1927. The page reflects *Life*'s identity as a humor and satire magazine for literate, middle-class readers of the Jazz Age.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
28 A digestive aid that quits when its task is done ASTROGEN Tablets are good — very good—for the prompt relief of indiges- tion, gas and other after-dinner discomfort. So are bicarbonate of soda and preparations containing it. But there's one objection to alkalies like “bicarb”—one respect in which they go too far. Unless you measure your dose toa nicety, your stomach is left with an alkaline residue which interferes with normal digestion. Gastrogen Tablets do not disturb normal digestion The stomach, you know, should be slightly acid (1/5 of one percent). And until nature | restores this delicate balance of acidity, normal digestion cannot proceed. The interesting thing about Gastrogen Tab- lets is that the moment they overcome the hyperacidity that makes you uncomfortable, they stop their work. Your stomach remains “in neutral.” Any excess of Gastrogen Tablets simply passes along through your system with- out further effect. You might eat a pound of them, and they would have no power to alka- lize the contents of your stomach. So, next time your dinner brings you dis- | comfort, try Gastrogen Tablets. They are | mild, safe, effective. They will quickly drive | away your indigestion, heartburn and gas. They are aromatic and pleasant to the oe and they are extraordinarily good for sweet- ening the breath. Your druggist has them in handy pocket tins of 15 tablets for 20c; also in cabinet-size bottles of 60 tablets for 60c. If you wish to try them before you buy them, send the coupon for free introductory packet of 6 tablets. GASTROGEN. OMblets © Bristol-Myers Co., 1926 Would you like to know how to make it a really Happy New Year—for you and your family? Well— Here's How: Fill out the little corner coupon and send it to Life. with five dollars enclosed. You will thereby enroll yourself as a subscriber to America’s great humorous magazine: for the fifty-two weeks of 1927 you will receive a steady supply of Happiness, Gaiety and Entertainment. Robert Benchley, Gluyas Williams, Don Herold, Montague Glass, Baird Leonard, John Held, Jr.. Charles Dana Gibson, Dorothy Parker, Percy Crosby, Oliver Herford, Ellison Hoover, R. V. Culter, R. E. Sherwood, F. G. Cooper, H. W. Hanemann—these are some of the entertainers who will visit your house regularly in the pleasant pages of Life. The promotion of Happiness—that is the worthy purpose which inspires this cheerful publication— y and 1927 is the forty-fifth New Year that ra Life has helped to make Happy! 7 7 7 LIFE 7 598 Madison Ave. New York, N. Y. Z Please send me LIFE for ten weeks, ‘or h A Sense of Humor yo Ah a Implies the sense to subscribe for it ! wares (Canadian, $5.80; Fotelen, $6.60) comicbooks.com