Life, 1928-05-10 · page 29 of 50
Life — May 10, 1928 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon (Billy & Nanny Goat):** A simple domestic joke. A billy goat asks why the nanny goat no longer eats clothes from the clothesline. She explains the doctor told her to "cut out starch"—a pun playing on starch used in laundry versus dietary starch. **"True to His Trust" Story:** A satirical anecdote about a dying soldier of the French Foreign Legion in Algeria. Despite comrades offering water and cognac, the soldier's final request is a cigarette—which he smokes while crediting the theatrical producer David Belasco for the idea. The humor lies in the absurdity: even facing death, the soldier prioritizes theatrical pretension over practical comfort. **Bottom Cartoon:** Depicts what the caption describes as "The India-Rubber Man Gets a Job as Bouncer at a Night Club"—showing a contortionist working as security, using his flexibility to eject rowdy patrons from the establishment. All content represents typical Life magazine humor: sophisticated wordplay, theatrical references, and physical comedy aimed at educated readers.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
at the same time. Oh, well, perhaps he can't play the banjo. . Anything that we may have written enpleasantly about Parisian revues a week ay ago, we hereby retract after having gea the show at the Casino de Paris. Not only are its scenic effects better than those af most New York revues, with nore girls walking up and down more suirs and more fountains playing to bet- tr advantage, but its comed sketches and general direction are much superior anything seen on Broadway last season. And maybe it doesn’t hurt us to say that, for we took up a great deal of space a short time ago saying that the French revue was dead. In the matter of unimpressive person- alities we can speak only of our own re- xtions to the efforts of Mr. George Robey and Miss Josephine Baker. Mr. Robey is say popular in London and hundreds of yeople seemed to be laughing very hard it “Bits and Pieces.” Miss Baker has ken Vienna by what is sometimes re- ferred to as “storm” and has her memoirs on sale in all the bookstores, to say noth- ing of running the most popular night dub in town, So the fault 1s evidently with our own receiving set. AR RR BGP Ms. Rosey was probably much better when his stuff was new, which would make it about the time of Gladstone's heyday, if Gladstone ever had a heyday. At present there is much too much work necessary on Mr. Robey’s part to put it xross with eyebrows and general audi- exe-milking. And, favorably disposed as we are toward colored performers in gen- eal, we should much prefer that Miss Baker stayed in Vienna where she is liked and where she can sing the words to “The Man I Love’ all wrong without her public's knowing the difference. We bring the matter of Mr. Robey and Miss Baker up only to show that sometimes understanding the words is a drawback. Robert Benchley. KIPLING’S BRIDGE For East is East and West is West And never the twain shall meet, Till Work and Whitehead sit that way At the radio Auction seat. ! —— THE perspicacious gentlemen on the Democratic side of the Senate have reached the conclusion that G. O. P. sands for Grand Oil Party. Bay Goat: Why don’t you eat the clothes from Mrs. Green's line any more? Nanny Goat: The doctor told me I must cut out starch, True to His Trust A sovpier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, surrounded by the customary hardships, With tears in their eyes, his hardened comrades knelt beside him, imploring that they might do something for him to ease his passing. “Water?” asked one. The dying hero shook his head pain- fully. “Cognac?” “No,” he whispered. Could nothing, then, be done? Nothing? But, just as his soul seemed to be forever slipping from that shat- tered body, one of the more vigilant detected a slight movement of the lips. He bent over his friend. “A cigarette.” The words just framed themselves. Instantly one was produced... .He clutched it, and took one almost breath- less puff. “I got the idea from David Belasco,” he murmured—and fell back, dead. Tip Bliss. Tue Inpiu-Russer Man Gets a Jos as Bouncer at a Nicut Cius comicbooks.com