Life, 1929-05-17 · page 29 of 52
Life — May 17, 1929 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes 1920s high-society trends and youth culture. The "Manna-About-Town" column mocks wealthy New Yorkers: young socialites drinking chocolate sodas in evening wear, society women opening bookshops, and the fashionable migration from Fifth Avenue to Park Avenue as the elite's preferred promenade. The most cutting joke describes a hidden flask disguised as a thick book—a direct reference to Prohibition-era bootlegging. By hollowing out a book to conceal alcohol, wealthy New Yorkers openly flouted the law while maintaining respectability. The cartoon "A quiet Sunday in New York" depicts well-dressed couples strolling—contrasting sharply with "Sunday strutters" below, showing different social classes on display. The "100 Years Ago" section provides historical humor by contrasting past manners (General Jackson's surprise at meeting someone who didn't seek office) with present concerns (tight corsets, female-dressed gentlemen at balls). The page captures Jazz Age social anxieties: generational rebellion, Prohibition hypocrisy, and shifting class markers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
'Manna-About-Town Seen in Fifth Ave. Huylers ... party in evening clothes, top hats, etc., imbibing choco- late sodas... what is the | younger generation coming \to? ... society gals going in for book shops |...new one on |Madison Ave. devot- ed to Young Books run by Josephine Dodge Kim- |ball and Joan Whitney Payson ... Park Ave. superseding Fifth as promenade . . . Woodman- sten Inn very nice this year . . . ama- teur fights at the Garden getting to be sinthe makes it even better! . « « latest flaskk—take a book 6 x 9 and at least two inches thick—paste all but the top few pages together then in the center cut out the shape of a pint bottle so that it will just fit in... the book of the month! | A quiet Sunday in New York. more popular than the pros—try and get a ticket... new combination— coffee and brandy Collins—pour a demitasse of coffee and a hooker of brandy into a Collins glass—fill with Club Soda and ice . . . a dash of ab- New York Life 27 “Thar's gold-diggers in them hills!” Around the Town 100 Years Ago Latest joke from Washington... gent called on General Jackson and sat some time ... rising to go re- marked that he didn’t want to en- croach on the President's time... “Sit down, Sir, and stay! You're the firs’ man to come here that hasn't asked for an office,” said the President + an anxious father has appealed to the Lord Mayor on behalf of his three daughters who, to be in style, have strapped them- selves in tight iron stays ...the Lord Mayor said that he could do nothing as wearing them is no breach of peace + new song hit “Fare- well to my Harp” and “Riley's Thirty Popular Airs for the Flute”... gentlemen in female dress are barred from the Grand Mask Ball at the Park theatre. comicbooks.com