Life, 1927-05-26 · page 25 of 39
Life — May 26, 1927 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several satirical pieces typical of 1920s Life magazine: **Top cartoon**: Shows fashionable women at leisure, with dialogue about a weekend shooting party. The satire targets the era's wealthy idle class and their casual social arrangements. **"Futuristic" story**: A darkly comic piece set in 1977 imagining "death-rays" as common business tools for eliminating annoying solicitors. The joke relies on exaggerating contemporary frustrations with persistent salesmen into absurd sci-fi violence. **"Clever" section**: Brief humorous exchanges mocking amateur theater and headless motorists (likely referencing reckless driving). **"It May Be Tragedy for Some Folks"**: Social commentary on marital infidelity and changing gender roles, with 1975 depicting husbands policing women's behavior (smoking deemed "unwomanly"). The overall tone reflects Jazz Age anxieties about modernity, wealth inequality, and shifting social conventions, presented through light satirical humor aimed at educated urban readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Marge: 1 cxn't DEAR. sitooTi O Damn! cursed O May! MAY !—And # thing! You need another heart in spring! Two other eyes to help you see The flaming of each fairy tree! Two other lips to—well, just That love and you are one in May! What's rose of red, or bud of blue— Oh, damn !—what’s anything to you If down the shining aisles of spring There’s no one there to hear you sing! Claire Wallace Flynn. alone !—O Up-to-the-Minute Theatrical Advertising Coming Attraction Mary South and Original Cast “LUST” One Year in New York—Six Months in Chicago TEN DAYS. IN JAIL —————_—SS . SHE SAYS THE HUSBANDS ITA BESS 11A8 INVITED ME DOW Futuristic THE year was 1977 and death- rays were in general use. They were employed by business men to rid themselves of book-agents, bond- salesmen and insurance solicitors in the same manner that insecticide had been used in an earlier day. One morning, as Hiram K. Wharf, the big light-wines-and-rum man, was sitting in his office prepared for a hard day, the door opened to admit Carl Cleeper, Mr. Wharf's most use- less employee. “Mr. Wharf,” he began, “I have been with you for four months and I think I am entitled to more money.” “Why?” coldly, “Because,” said Carl Cleeper, “I have consumed more of your product in that time than any other clerk in your office!" queried Mr. Wharf, A.M. S,, Jr. P. S. He got the ray Clever LORIA: What did you enjoy the most in our amateur theatri- cals? Hernert: The place where you dropped the curtain for twenty min- utes to indicate a lapse of ten. THE NEVER BEEN SO PLF we =ND FOR THUR TIFUL, It May Be Tragedy for Some Folks— : My husband just ran off . Oh, I just DN + with another w ¢e-e-can't control myself! Manor: You mustn't try, dearic. You'll feel better after a good laugh. HE, headless horseman was a myth, but the headless motorist is a stark reality. 1975 Husband: mitprep, 1 MUST IN- SIST ON YOUR GIVING UP HASHERSIE SMOKING. IT's UNWOMANLY! comicbooks.com