Life, 1929-05-17 · page 5 of 52
Life — May 17, 1929 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising, not satire or political commentary**. It's a Ronson lighter advertisement from Life magazine. The main image shows men in a club car playing a "Lighter Game"—apparently a contest where they test different lighters' reliability. The testimonial describes how a Ronson lighter performed flawlessly during a 30-minute game, while competitors' lighters failed. The advertisement's humor is gentle and commercial: the tagline "It's a shame to take the money / A RONSON lights every time" plays on the idea that winning a lighter-testing competition with a Ronson is almost unfair—the product is so reliable it feels like cheating. This reflects early 20th-century advertising style, using relatable scenarios and gentle humor to promote consumer goods, rather than political satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
RONSON LIGHTER STARTS NEW FAD Ronson owners, enthusiastic about this lighter, have started a new game. All over the country today they are challenging oteners of other cigarette lighters to @ mits-and-out contest, “FOR THIRTY MINUTES WE HAD PLAYED THE LIGHTER GAME, THERE IN THE CLUB CAR OF THE BROADWAY LIMITED."” ‘It’s a shame to take the money A RONSON lights every time Penn. Station for another hour, I might have made expenses from Chicago. “For thirty minutes we had played the Lighter Game, there in the club car of the Broadway Limited on the way to New York. “My lighter was the only Ron- son,andI wonsteadily.I told them it was a shame to take the money —that they didn’t havea chance. But they were unconvinced that a Ronson lights every time. T we hadn’t pulled into [Fup ats tn [ RELEASE... its Ow “Well, they paid me to find out. “Lucky there wasn’t another Ronson in the crowd, or the battle would have been a draw.” The Ronson is just as easy to light as it is sure to light. It has no cap to lift, no wheel to spin. Just press and it lights—in the flick of an eye. Release, and it’s out. No soiled fingers, no need for an educated thumb. Keep the flint and the fuel re- newed, and your Ronson goes right on working without a miss RONSON for years, because it is made as sturdy as a steel die, yet as pre- cise as a fine watch. Styles for men and women, for business, sport and evening use, as well as table models, in scores of beautiful finishes, many priced at $5, and ranging up to $3,000 for jeweled presentation models. Art Metal Works, Inc., Aron- son Square, Newark, N. J. In Canada: Dominion Art Metal Works, Ltd., 64-66 Princess Street, Toronto, Ontario. LIGHTS EVERY iy THE WORLD'S GREATEST LIGHTER comicbooks.com