Life, 1928-11-16 · page 22 of 44
Life — November 16, 1928 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Broadway in the 1920s through columnist Walter Winchell's response to a reader's request for a portrait of how Broadway has changed. **The Satire:** Winchell humorously argues that *nothing* has actually changed on Broadway—only women's minds change. He catalogs the permanent fixtures: the Times Building, the Paramount theater, Lindy's restaurant, Dinty Moore's, the Tavern on 48th Street, Chinese restaurants, Loew's New York Theater, and street characters like "the mad woman of Longacre" and the newsboy called "Bum." **The lower cartoon** shows two women at a pork shop, commenting that a book is already out despite the show opening weeks ago—mocking the speed of Broadway exploitation and tie-in merchandise. **Context for modern readers:** This captures 1920s Broadway's tourist economy, nightlife culture, speakeasies (Prohibition era), and the personality-driven celebrity gossip that Winchell pioneered. The piece is essentially saying Broadway's commercial machinery—not genuine cultural change—defines the street.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
20 T Gj Dear Pac Wittaro: Give you a word Walter portrait of Broadway? Winchell Good heavens, man—have a heart! If you mean draw- ing a picture of the way the old Stem looked when you were here alcoholiday- ing and how it looks now, that should be a cinch, because the only thing that changes on Broadway, Willard, is a woman’s mind. Come to think of it, the Times Building has added a huge red- lighted torch to its roof—a beacon for planes, they say. The Chinatown buses and the Coney Island wagons still clutter up trafic by parking on the world’s busiest corners. That guy with the limp expression still peddles the Matrimonial by News in front of the Paramount cathedral and the Woman with the Skirts Away Down to Here still is trying to get some- body to buy a copy of the Birth Control Review. The bird with the silk hat, the Van- dyke alfalfa and the dress suit still ankles up and down with his electric-lit stiff shirt-front advertising a certain seegar. The out-of-town news-stands in the rear of the Times Building and the one at 47th Street still do a handsome trade and Rosie, the mad woman of Longacre, growls at her tormentors as she drags her shawl-wrapped form and basket of choco- lates and gum in and out of Forty-so-forth Street. The plump person, known to all news- boys as “Bum,” makes the rounds shoo- ing away strange newsboys who try to peddle their papers in His Kingdom. | understand he rates a percentage from all the kids he permits in the vicinity. What a racket! Dinty Moore’s is where the mob still goes for its corned beef and cabbage. The Tavern on 48th Street attracts the wise mob and the moom pitcher celebs “My Gawd, Mayme—lookit—tha book's out already an’ tha show only opened a coupla weeks ago.” “Mister, could you let me have a little dirt for my flower pot?” who visit here. Lindy's, near soth, now features a brand of lemon meringue pie that is simply grand. The type of electric sign that keeps moving seems to be a favorite with most B'way advertisers, And O. O. McIntyre almost got run over again for not looking where he was going. The numerous Chinese restaurants are getting in everybody's hair. The electric sign reading, “New York Welcomes You!" is sidetracked west of 43rd Street in back of a building. The only tree in the sector still is in the yard of a 46th Street speakeasy. Women's skirts are get- ting as high as Tunney’s hat. It takes forty minutes to get from Fifth Avenue to any theater near Broadway at curtain time. The red trolleys still kiss the green ones goodbye at 46th Street. The Para- mount clock still is a waste of time, but the new lighted time-teller at the peak of Longacre, which flashes the minute every minute with numerals, is plenty reliable, Childs’ is getting fancier as you go up- town. Dopes and others still clog the pave- ment near 43rd Street watching them juggle flapjacks and the Lucky Strike ex hibition at 45th Street on the west side of the Stem ties up more pedestrian trafic than anything else in the town. The most fascinating diversion along the blazing belt, to me, still is the series of news photos that are featured and changed daily in front of Loew's New York Theater. There you keep posted on what Babe Ruth did to those St. Looey lads; what the Queen of Soandso looked like as she boarded the cutter in India, or how Hoo ver appeared at Madison Square Garden. So, you see, Willard, old timer, Brosd- way looks very much as it did when you came here last to do your whoopecing. Perhaps the only new things around are comicbooks.com W S ew A? ean a.