Life, 1928-02-23 · page 26 of 35
Life — February 23, 1928 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three distinct pieces of satire: 1. **Top cartoon**: A "Head Mover" (moving company worker) tells a landlady to be patient with a new employee. The joke plays on incompetence during a move—relatable domestic humor. 2. **Middle section**: "Traveling Salesman's Panorama of the Middle West" is a dense parody of small-town American commerce. It mocks the mundane advertising and business life of Midwestern cities through a rapid-fire list of establishments (chiropractors, diners, gas stations, funeral homes labeled "United Morticians"). The satire targets the monotonous commercialism and standardized consumer culture spreading across America. 3. **Bottom joke**: A man brags about cheating the railroad by buying a round-trip ticket but walking home instead. It mocks petty fraud and working-class cleverness—a common joke type of the era. The page overall satirizes American consumer culture, small-town commercialism, and ordinary people's attempts to navigate it, with gentle mockery rather than sharp political critique.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Heap Mover: Try to have patience with him, ma'am. He's new at the game—an’ we all have Traveling Salesman’s Panorama of the Middle West IE per cut—.10... Member of the Associated Press....Eat.... Chiropractor.... Hoot Gipson... Tipping is un-American... . Paris Shoppe... . Original New York Cast. . Oysters Any — Style....Coca- «Razor Blades Resharp- He: Say, kid, I sure put one over on the railroad company. Sue: How's that? He; Sh-h! I bought a round-trip ticket and J walked back home. to learn, sometime. ened,...Hamburgers 5c.—Buy ‘em by the Bag....Suine....Hot Roasted Peanuts.... Eureka Garage. ...An Eating Place of Merit.... Waff -Direct from Factory to You.. ollege Inn....Please Do Not Smoke....Creamy Root Beer. «.+Rexall....Nick’s Place—Ladies Invited....GAS....WELcoME Uniten Mortictans....Corn Beef and Cabbage a Spccialty....Call a Yellow Taxi... . Buttermilk 5c....Chop Suey.. ..Twenty- Four Hours from Broadway. ...Take Home a Pie.... Tapernacre....P LEASE Pay Casmer....No Park- ing....Baby Ruth.... Banana Special 20c.. .. Help The regular Silent Drama is omitted this week, owing to the illness of Mr. Sherwood. On page 30, however, will be found a list of pictures previ- ously reviewed in LIFE, and recommended to our readers. “—! Why, no. I'm sorry. | | like or i be! on “Cl Keep Your City Clean....Join the Y. M. C. A....Depot....Quiet is requested for the benefit of those who have retired.... Th new Mr. Van Allasteyne is OUT...” comicbooks.com