Life, 1929-02-08 · page 34 of 44
Life — February 8, 1929 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **advertising disguised as editorial content** for AT&T's Bell System telephone company, alongside humor columns and comic strips. The main advertisement claims Bell System profits fund research, infrastructure, and service improvements rather than excessive shareholder returns—a defensive message likely responding to public criticism of corporate monopoly practices during the early-to-mid 20th century. The illustrated scene depicts an upper-class social gathering, suggesting Bell's service enables sophisticated modern life. The remaining content includes unrelated joke sections ("Little Simpson," "Auntie") and a serialized adventure comic about "Qilq," an explorer attempting to prove Rangoons possess specialized ears—a fictional absurdist subplot typical of period humor magazines. The page exemplifies how *Life* magazine blended paid corporate messaging with satirical humor, allowing advertisers to present corporate narratives while the magazine's editorial voice remained elsewhere.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Where the Bell System’s profit goes An Advertisement of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company Tuere is in effect but one profit paid by the Bell Tele- phone System. This profit is not large, for it is the policy of the Bell System to furnish a con- stantly improving telephone service at the least cost to the public. The treasury of the American Tele- phone and Telegraph Company re- ceives dividends from the stock of the operating companies. It receives a payment from the operating com- panies for research, engineering and staff work, It receives dividends from the Western Electric Company— makers of supplies for the Bell Sys- tem—and income from long distance operations. Only one profit is taken from this money in the Amer- ican Telephoneand Telegraph Company's treasury. That is the regular dividend to its stock- holders—now more than 450,000 in number—which it has never missed paying since its incorporation in 1885. Money beyond regular dividend requirements and a surplus for financial stability is used to give more and better telephone service to the public. This is fundamental in the policy of the company. The Bell System accepts its respon- sibility to provide a nation-wide tele- phone service as a public trust. Enticing the pop- ulace into the Museums with picture tone hook up. Littte Simpson: He called me a liar, and, big as he was, I knocked him sprawl- ing. Wire: With your fist? “No; with my car.” Tit-Bits. “Auntie, why do you put powder on your face?” Aunt: To make me pretty, dear. Lucy: Then why doesn’t it? Sydney Bulletin. Have Rangoons Specialized Ears? How Qilg will prove his point madly, the crumbs fly about like little snow storms. Only half an hour ago, I got very excited and had a blizzard. I put my hand before my face but couldn't see it! Grop ing around in blind desperation, I soo was trapped in a mammoth crumb drift! Fortunately for me, Lunk was within calling distance and saved me by sending out a St. Bernard. Another setback to our plans came this morning, when I received a very up setting radiogram from my father: “Dea Son,” he wrote. “When, at the age of three you heard me talk with the Bowling Club, you assumed that we were discuss |ing our pin-boy, the Club Rangoon. You | were wrong. The creature with “special ized ears” was only our Mascot, the Club Raccoon! Moreover, there’s not a single Raccoon in Rangoon. Love to Lunk and Weeney. Papa.” Discouraged by this? Not a Qilq! I fed sure that even now there is some other burning problem in Rangoon that I cao solve with the aid of Weeney and Lunk and the swivelled chair. Anyone who ca think of one, will greatly oblige by radio ing same to Qincy Qilq, Explorer's Suite on the S. S. Butterick. comicbooks.com