Life, 1928-09-06 · page 42 of 44
Life — September 6, 1928 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mixes advertising with editorial content promoting Life magazine itself. **Left side:** A Wetzel clothing advertisement featuring a well-dressed man in a suit, promoting men's fashion through refined tailoring details. **Center:** A Kermath Manufacturing Company ad for marine motors, targeting yacht owners and boat builders. **Right side:** "An Editorial with a Coupon" is a self-promotional piece satirizing common perceptions of editorials as dull filler content written by predictable writers who "View with Alarm and Point with Pride"—mocking clichéd editorial tropes. Life distinguishes itself by claiming its editorials (written by Elmer Davis) are actually readable, uncensored, and plain-spoken rather than evasive or radically denounciatory. The piece then lists Life's popular contributors—Robert Benchley, Will Rogers, Fred Cooper, Percy Crosby, and others—to entice subscription at $5/year (about one-third cent daily). The humor lies in the page ironically using a tedious editorial format to argue that Life's editorials *aren't* tedious.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Wetzel Lrtablished 1476 2and 4 E Forty-Fourth Street NEW YORK \|* clothes is attained by al| || nicety of details harmoni- || ||ously attuned —for years an || accomplishment of WetzeL. Copyright by Wetzel Send for your of hcg? Skee pat CATALO No one who is about to buy a marine motor should overlook this book. The latest designs—advanced engincering features —and exacting production methods are illus- trated and explained in a clean-cut comprehen- sive manner. Herein is fully described the HP. Kermath 85 — 125—150 H.P. models — oes conceded by prominent yachtsmen and leading $135 to boat builders to be the most powerful, speedy, $2,300 and most efficient power plants of their size * on the market. 3 to 150 Send for your copy today. KERMATH MANUFACTURING COMPANY 5870 Commonwealth Avenue, Detroit, Mich. 90 King Street W., Toronto Ontario. “A KERMATH ALWAYS RUNS” AN EDITORIAL WITH A COUPON A creat many people believe that editorials are what take up space just before you come to the sports page and the funnies. Some people think that editorials are written by ponderous, sonorous fel- lows who View with Alarm and Point with Pride, or thin little men who do the ones about Our Feathered Friends which are used on off days as fillers. Some even go so far as to say that you could print the whole editorial page—Mail Bag and all—in Hindustani and nobody would know the difference except Constant Reader and Old Subscriber, or possibly Pro Bono Publico. 2 SCOSSSGE You couldn’t do that in Lire. One reason the editorials in Lire provoke so much comment is that people actually read them. And another reason is that Lire editorials are neither evasive with the fear of censorship nor blatant with that unbridled denunciation which passes for freedom of speech in radical circles. Lire editorials are plain-spoken and uncensored. Elmer Davis, who does them, writes editorials you can read, on subjects you are interested in. He has the ability to point with pride or view with alarm without waving his arms and calling out the militia. And he has the rare faculty of thinking straight and writing what he thinks. Turn back to page 12 of this issue and read his remarks on the “Age of Easy Credit.” And now we come to the coupon, but before you sign, consider the many, many reasons for parting with your five dol- lars, which, after all, figures out less than one and one-third cents a day. Think of the fun you'll have with Robert Benchley and Gluyas Williams and Will Rogers and Fred Cooper and R. E. Sherwood @ @ © © © @and Agnes Smith and Percy Crosby and ee Qlip and mait 1» Baird Leonard and John Kieran and LIFE, $98 Madison Henry Suydam and—and—are you still Ave, New York here? Well, isn’t that enough? Of course ° there’s lots more, but why not sign the coupon now and be surprised? Send me LIFE for one year $5 enclosed ‘TUE DEVINNE-MALLENBECK COMPANY, INC., PRINTERS, NEW YORK comicbooks.com