Life, 1927-07-21 · page 22 of 38
Life — July 21, 1927 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three satirical pieces typical of 1920s Life magazine humor: **"Bored by the Week"** (top cartoon): A man observes an impeccably dressed woman on a bus—her outfit meticulously designed by famous fashion houses (Poiret, a renowned couturier). The joke's punchline: she pulls from her elegant beaded bag a packet of Wrigley's chewing gum, a mass-produced American product. The satire mocks the contradiction between pretentious European fashion affectation and ordinary American consumer goods—highlighting the gap between aristocratic pretense and everyday reality. **"Cornered"** and **"Soft-Hearted"**: Brief humor pieces about romantic deception and Prohibition enforcement. **"Love Lyric"**: A poem by Roger Burlingame mocking Romantic literature's exaggerated claims about love's physical effects on the heart, using medical logic to debunk poetic conventions. The page satirizes 1920s consumer culture, fashion snobbery, and literary sentimentality—characteristic of Life's educated, urbane readership.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Bored by the Week The Final Fastidiousness SHE was beautiful. Custom-made S) in every detail, from the top of the little black cloche to the soles of the tiny green snakeskin) pumps. Furtively I admired, as she sat seross from me in the bus, That. frock its lines could be none other than Poiret. The cloche, chic as the label which I knew it — “Duphlickee, Paris.” The expensivencss of the blouse bor murmured one name: “Challe Even in the exquisite beaded bag, ching the costume, I recognized a gem especially created for this fastidious creature by the master Vienna As J watehed, she opened it, withdrew a little packet in scarlet and geld pa hagmen of old per. What was it? Something made for her exact and exclusive taste; that I could see. Daintily, she slit the paper wrapper—which fluttered to the floor—extracted the contents, and rose ght at her stop. Trembling, I hastily snatched up the searlet and gold paper. On on: side was a gorgeous monogram. On the other, in neat gold letters: “Mave to Onver ny Wa. Wrictey, Jn. New Yorxk—Cuucaco.” Stanley Jones. Cornered ALICE: [told Dick the truth. Vinaixia: ‘Then what's worry- vou? Now [ gotta lie ont of it!” Love Lyric AM, Love, who thrice have passed 4 me by, IT hear your footsteps patter Far down’ the corridors of years; I hear them, but I shed no tears, And, dry-eyed, I inquire why It doesn’t scem to matter. My heart should lie in picces three, ‘\ horrible disjunction; Yet if, indeed, this were the case, From study of the human race And cardiac anatomy, I doubt if it would fknction. I feel its beats and doctors say It rarely stops, if ever; I climb upstairs and smoke and do The things IT was accustomed to Before Love even passed my way This organ to dissever. I'm sure I could not feel so well Or be, in fact, so agile, If what the lyric pocts knew Of physiology were true— If, under I. Hearts were so very fragile. e's destructive spell, And though, my dears, I've suffered thus Three darts from cupid’s quiver, I never feel the urge to go Without my food, lie sleepless, throw Myself beneath a passir Or leap into the river. bus And this, in spite of all the song Of bards, and tales related Of blighted love when hope was young And shattered hearts and lives un- strung... They're not, perhaps, exactly wrong— But much exaggerated. Roger Burlingame. Soft-Hearted fo has remained for Prohibition officials at Yazoo City, Miss., to supply the first adequate farm-relief measures. They found a still run- ning on a farm and padlocked the farm, thereby permitting the farmer to devote his entire attention to his filling station and hot-dog business. “TS Friday your unlucky day?" “One of them,” a comicbooks.com