Life, 1927-03-31 · page 22 of 35
Life — March 31, 1927 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces from Life magazine's "Gay Nineties" section, mocking late 19th-century culture. **Top cartoon:** Criticizes boys' obsession with dime-novel westerns featuring "Deadwood Dick"—pulp fiction about outlaws and violence. The satire notes these boys failed arithmetic and geography in school but were experts at reading sensational "hair-raising" stories. The sketch shows children engrossed in this literature, suggesting it corrupted their education. **"A Shower Bath" section:** Parodies how movie actresses performed shower scenes for cinema audiences—teasing nudity through strategic camera cuts, shadows, and partial reveals (bare arm, leg, shoulder) while maintaining plausible deniability. The joke concludes when a maid wraps her in a towel, foiling the display. This mocks both actresses' calculated seductiveness and audiences' appetite for borderline-indecent entertainment. Both pieces satirize lowbrow American entertainment consuming the public's attention.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Gay Nineties *...and then Deadwood Dick’s trusty carbine spoke—and another redskin bit the dust.” SCHOOL REPORT CARDS MAY HAVE SHOWN A DECIDED LACK OF INTEREST IN ARITHMETIC AND GEOGRAPHY, BUT IT WAS HARD TO FIND A BOY, IN THE HAIR-RAIS SETIES, WILO WAS NOT PROFIC E NT IN READID OUR 5) ‘G-PAPER-BACK “ML SHOWS A HAY-MOW LITERARY SOCIETY OF TILE PERIOD—WHICH PERHAPS ACCOUNTS FOR THE PROFICIENCY—— ABOUT TO LOSE ITS CHARTER. : A Shower Bath As Taken by a Movie Actress, Professionally MILES at audience. Starts to remove gown, before mirror. Various intimate removals, film discreetly cut. Removes stockings, with back to audience. Smiles over shoulder. Grabs silken robe and throws it about her—but not all about her. Darts from room, in manner of interpretive dancer. Luxurious bathroom: actress co- quettishly adjusts rubber cap. Smiles at audience and turns on shower. Makes motions preparatory to dropping bath robe. (Intense darkness.) Movie actress discovered in rubber sheeting of shower bath. Smiles, and sticks out bare arm. Continues smiling, and extends bare leg. Wiggles toes, and smiles at audi- ence. Displays shoulder, glistening. knowingly, Starts to step out of rubber sheet- ing just as— Black-gowned maid gets in way of audience and envelopes her in a hor- rid, rough bath towel. 4. HI. F. Not Broadcasting It MILDRED: What kind of a git is Beile Slocum? Pauutine: Well, I'll tell you Belle reads the tabloid newspapers, but she doesn’t leave them lying around. comicbooks.com