Life, 1928-05-10 · page 31 of 50
Life — May 10, 1928 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several humor items typical of 1920s Life magazine satire: **Main Feature: "A Love Letter to Walter Damrosch"** Walter Damrosch was a prominent conductor who broadcast classical music on radio (WJZ network). The letter humorously praises his ability to make classical music accessible and exciting to ordinary people—even making old standards like the "William Tell" overture seem novel. The writer suggests Damrosch could organize an orchestra specifically for radio broadcast, since Carnegie Hall concerts sound poor when transmitted through Times Square subway stations (mocking radio transmission quality). **Bottom Cartoons:** These are brief gag comics: - "Inefficient" jokes about a child avoiding washing up before grapefruit breakfast - "A Little Better" is a shaving brush sales gag - The final caption about "the Italian Government" appears to reference Mussolini's regime, though the specific joke is unclear The page satirizes both radio's emerging role in democratizing classical music and period advertising/consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
29 A Love Letter to Walter Damrosch Dartinc Mr. Damroscu: I have been meaning to write you now for a couple of years and tell you how much I enjoy your Saturday eve- ning programs which are broadcast though WJZ and Heaven only knows how many other stations. But you know how things are. When there is paper in the house, there is no ribbon on the typewriter. And when there is a ribbon on the typewriter, there are no stamps. Anyway, you get a lot of letters. What is one more from just poor little me? You get letters from sheep-herders who are knocked cold by the Siegfried “* Wald- weben.” You get letters from old ladies made young again by Strauss’ “Tales from the Vienna Woods.” What can I say? Only that I think you are swell. That sounds pretty dumb com- pared with your other letters, which are mostly from people who live forty miles from a five-and-ten-cent store. I am here in New York where symphony con- certs are as plentiful as taxicabs and where there are as many guest conductors as there are traffic cops. Let's get down to the compliments: you have an ingratiating voice and a charming way of announcing your selec- bons. You can get your listeners as much stamed up over Brahms as they are over NIN Mr. Future: Is it possible I hear the cook's voice? Mrs. F.: Yes, you absent-minded fool, you forgot to untie the hitching rope again. George Gershwin. You can make them think that the “William Tell” overture is an exciting novelty. You can make the old warhorses of symphony music sound as though they were frisky colts. As a conductor, you are something of a missionary but you do it in a nice way. People who go around telling others what books they ought to read or what music they ought to enjoy are usually pests. You get away with it. Personality, that’s what it is. And, confidentially, don’t you get more fun playing for an unseen audience than facing the same old gan) of Sunday subscribers week after woke This plan of giving you an orchestra to broadcast concerts to school children is a big-hearted gesture on the part of the RCA, Why not ge all the way and form a symphony orchestra just for the air? Most of the concerts from Carnegie Hall sound as though they were broadcast from the Times Square subway station. With the merger of the Philharmonic and New York Symphony, a lot of musi- cians are lying around looser than usual. Surely, Mr. Damrosch, with your per- suasive ways, you can get them together and form a permanent radio symphony orchestra, Agnes Smith. INEFFICIENT Morner: Junior, you didn’t wash your face this morning Erriciency Expert's Littce Boy: No, Mother—I heard you say we were going to have grapefruit for breakfast. A LITTLE BETTER “Dip you sell me a shaving brush last week for twenty-five cents?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, show me one for about twelve dollars.” Oty one one-man top has been invented that works satisfactorily. That's the Italian Government's. kil The Wide-awake Oculist Uses a Special Chart to Test the Eyes of Tabloid Readers comicbooks.com