Life, 1928-09-21 · page 35 of 36
Life — September 21, 1928 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This isn't a political cartoon or satire—it's a straight automobile advertisement for the Franklin Airman Limited, published in Life magazine. The page advertises a luxury car by claiming it's the "World's Fastest Road Car." The advertisement features a vintage automobile illustration and a scene of two men in conversation (likely meant to suggest casual, sophisticated comfort). The main sales pitch centers on a real (or claimed) endurance test: racing driver Cannon Ball Baker drove a Franklin sedan from Los Angeles to New York and back—6,692 miles in 6½ days—to demonstrate speed combined with comfort and reliability. The ad emphasizes interior luxury details: fine upholstery, artistic appointments, and color schemes (blues, maroons, greens, grays, browns) comparable to "modern drawing rooms." This is product marketing, not editorial content or satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VICTORIA BROUGHAM orld’s Fastest Road Car now sets new styles in Interior Luxury and Design Tue Airman Limited is years ahead! Here is new elegance such as motorists have never known before. In the newly designed interiors are infi- nitely finer upholstery—artistic new appointments —and colorings which introduce a new note in in- terior beauty—delightful blues, maroons, harmoni- ous mixtures of green and gray and brown. The com- plete ensemble achieves new luxury—comparable only to exquisite, modern drawing rooms. The new Airman Limited sets the style and sets the pace. In a recent demonstration, Cannon Ball Baker drove a stock Franklin sedan from Los Angeles to New York and return—6,692 miles—in 634 days! Proving conclusively that Franklin’s speed, com- fort, ease of control, ruggedness and air-cooling combine to produce the world’s fastest road car. Franklin holds the key to speed-with-comfort. Now, with sumptuous interiors and a new complete- ness of comfort features, the Airman Limited offers Luxurious Fast Travel. You can expect to be surprised when you see the Airman Limited—you can expect to be thrilled when you drive it—no other car is like the new Airman Limited . . . Franklin Automobile Company, Syracuse, New York. THE NEW FRANKLIN AIRMAN LIMITED comicbooks.com