Life, 1927-07-28 · page 31 of 36
Life — July 28, 1927 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily an **advertisement for Palmolive Shaving Cream** disguised as editorial content. The dominant image shows a man in business attire examining the product. The page header discusses new books, including "Trader Horn"—a real travel memoir popular in the 1920s. The brief literary discussion serves as filler around the advertisement. Below the book review is a small joke labeled "Considerate of the Cashier," a simple pun: a cashier rings "No Sale" during a holdup to maintain honesty—humor derived from the incongruity of ethical behavior during a crime. The main advertisement's headline claims "Men Are Changing By Scores of Thousands" from traditional shaving soaps to Palmolive's product. It offers 10 free shaves and promises five specific advantages (lather quality, beard softening, etc.). **The satire here is subtle**: Life magazine—known for sharp social commentary—has essentially sold a full page to advertising, with minimal editorial content. The juxtaposition of literary discussion and hard-sell advertising reflects 1920s consumer culture's growing dominance in American media.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Among the New Books (Continued from page 19) | discussed his | eagerly points of departure stallment. Mrs. Lewis records these conversations faithfully at the end of each chapter, and, needless to say, they are the life of the book, You will water, and after each in- and raison d’étre simply love ‘Trader Horn. There is a drawing of him by Noel Wallace in the front of his book which reveals him as the kind of old man Dudley would look like in the facial make-up of seventy-three plus a long white pointed beard. His observations are what the jeunesse dorée call price- less. He is not a crack at Livingstone, “whom ladies in Hyde Park prayed for and sent the where withal,” pointing out that he him self went into the wilds of Africa with a gun and Manchester cotton, not a Bible. He stant and naive eye on the American reader: “If a book's to be you must keep an eve on ‘Twould tickle the that our clocu Edward's rof the man Digges above writes with a con- sold in America, the novelties,” “ Americans to know tion teacher at St Edwin Booth, the | who shot Lincoln The was Americans His ha French pops up amus- won't stand tragedy.” ct tred of the ingly throughout his discourse, and he sums up our own countrymen in “The Americans—a moral people ex cept when it comes to murder and so on.” There are to be, it appears, fur ther revelations from Trader Horn. LT hope so. In conclusion of this one, he says to Mrs. Lewis, “The that comes from a literary horizon is of a breed harder to kill than most -And all from that gridiron I was twisting up one Sunday morning in my room, not knowing its peculiar propertics. I knew you never wanted it.” Baird Leonard. Considerate of the Cashier Fiust Yeco: Bill has an honest streak in him. Sreoxp Dirro: Fist: He alv when he a holdup What do you mean? rings up “No Sale” opens the cash register durin’ Boston Transcript. Next Week— ON THE COVER A beautiful girl caught in the act of diving, by JOHN LAGATTA | n Are Changing a Scores of Thousands From old-type shaving soaps to this unique creation—let us send you 10-day tube to try Genteemen These 5 advantages 80% of the Present | users sof Pal +, Mulcipties itself ta lather 3g val prepa discarded old-type We won them over by giving t liberal test tubes of this unique cre. tion to try. Then asked them to ec pare with present favorites. Now we seek a like opportunity of proving results to you. We believe you'll find that § major mistakes in shaving preparations have been corrected. And shaving thus given a new element of comfort, speed D THE PALMOLIVE-PEET COMPANY, CHICAGO, ILL. PALMOLIV Shaving Gree 10 SHAVES FREE and a can of Palmolive After Shaving Tale comicbooks.com