Life — February 15, 1929 — page 15: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous cartoon about apartment moving day, captioned "The Man Who Was Assured He Could Move In on the Fifteenth — And Did!" The joke depicts a chaotic moving scene in a multi-story building where a tenant, assured he could occupy his apartment on February 15th (as stated in the "Ready for Occupancy Feb. 15 Blotz & Blitz" sign), literally *does* move in on that date—but the building is still under construction. Workers continue laboring on scaffolding and within the building's framework while the tenant moves his belongings via an improvised chute/ramp system. The satire mocks both tenant expectations and landlord/developer promises about move-in dates. It's a comment on the housing market's chronic delays and the gap between promised and actual availability—a timeless issue in real estate.