Life — April 14, 1927 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical illustration depicts a jazz-age celebration with the banner "AVIATION IS FREE / COME ACROSS" visible above. The scene shows musicians with brass instruments and a woman in a light-colored dress, suggesting a speakeasy or nightclub setting during Prohibition. The "aviation is free" message likely references Lindbergh's famous 1927 transatlantic flight, which had occurred earlier that year and captured public imagination. The joke appears to satirize how Americans were celebrating this achievement while simultaneously engaged in illegal drinking during Prohibition—the irony being that while aviation represented freedom and progress, citizens were breaking laws in speakeasies. The cartoon mocks the contradictions of the era's values.