Life, 1927-09-08 · page 25 of 36
Life — September 8, 1927 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon: "The Paramount Platoon"** This satirizes post-WWI absurdity. Five veterans from different nations (England, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, America) roll dice to decide who "won" the war—suggesting the actual outcome was so ambiguous and devastating that chance seems as valid as military victory. The joke mocks the futility of the conflict. **"The Paramount Platoon" Article** Satirizes Hollywood's militarization. It proposes a new "Fourth Branch" of armed forces: movie theater ushers trained as soldiers. The satire suggests their tactics—roping up troops, directing them with useless gestures—would confuse enemies so thoroughly that war would end in chaos. It's dark comedy about filmmaking's growing influence on American culture post-WWI. **Bottom Comics** "Extravagance": A Paris socialite spent her husband's money frivolously; "The Rebound": An office girl claims the boss is on vacation when a customer arrives—suggesting employees shirking work during absence. All content reflects 1920s anxieties about war's meaninglessness, popular entertainment, and post-war social behavior.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A GROUP OF ENGLISIL, GERMAN, FRENCH, BELGIAN, ITALIAN AND AMERICAN VETERANS FIND A WAY TO DECIDE, ONCE FOR ALL, WHO WON THLE War The Paramount Platoon Extravagance AZ present it looks as though our in one another, and will end by YPARIAN: 1 suppose you did *% next war were going to be, by walking in the other direction and 4 aris to your heart's content ill odds, the most brutal and in- taking the 11:16 for wherever they Anice: My dear, I was completely human ever waged by man. Liquid live. After that, the enemy will crushed! [spent all of my hus fire and aerial battleships will be abandon war in disgust. preferring band’s money on the ruc de la Paix bad enough, but the work of our — to stay home and listen to the radio. and we had to come home without a new Fourth Branch of the Service, . Creighton Peet divorce now training in the aisles of our movie colosseums, is sure to make war so horrible that hostilities will be ended in a very few days. The Fourth Branch of the Service, following the Army, Navy and Ma- rine Corps, will be, of course, the Movie Ushers’ Battalion. Equipped with freshly creased uniforms, ei day flashlights and non-remo' waterproof smiles, these hardy lads ire going to mak ving hell for enemies of the United First they will line tle troops up behind long rop ufter having made them night in a drizzling rain, they will waft them to the right, and then to the left, by waving their arms in the symbolic “two-aisles-over” gesture, meanwhile chanting in their ears the ious threat of their Battalion: p are better seats in the bal- y without waiting, SIR.” The result will be that the enemy regiments, confused, and of course unable to find a balcony which does not exist on the battlefield (all The Rebound battlefield seats are in the orchestra), Customer (coming into office): 18N’t ANYBODY WORKING AROUND HERR? will become completely tangled up Office Gir comicbooks.com