Life, 1929-07-19 · page 30 of 36
Life — July 19, 1929 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page features two distinct elements: **Left side:** A title-writing contest where *Life* magazine challenges readers to caption a surreal illustration of a woman in an airplane cabin encountering oversized clouds and landscape features. The prize structure ($500 first place down to $25) incentivizes clever, brief titles. **Right side:** A satirical feature called "Jumping at Conclusions" that mocks how magazine serialization works. It shows excerpts from popular periodicals (Saturday Evening Post, New York Times, Delineator, Woman's Home Companion, Collier's) where story fragments abruptly end mid-narrative with "continued on page X"—creating absurd, misleading cliff-hangers. The humor lies in how readers' imaginations fill gaps, often misinterpreting mundane continuations as dramatic plot developments. **Bottom illustration:** A boxing match scene captioned "Ya oughta do more scowlin' and mutterin', Bill. Remember this is a grudge fight!"—likely satirizing theatrical sports entertainment performance. The page overall gently mocks early-twentieth-century magazine publishing conventions and reader credulity.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
28 Life Can you think of a Title Jumping at Conclusions : : Note—When reading a sto for this P icture? breaks over to aadther page, phe Ast Prize $500 ® the “continued” line with the last line 2nd Prize $250 and see what you get. Lire will pay 3rd Prize $100 m five dollars for each one printed, bus : remember that other people read the 4th to 9th Prizes y Same magazines you do and the first i Te one in gets the five. Send them to the Conclusion Editor, Lire, 598 Madison Ave., New York. Conclusions must be clipped from newspaper or magazine, None will be returned. She turned on Braxton. “Sir, it was no accident. It was deliberate murder continued on page 64. —Saturday Evening Post. With Border patrolmen armed with .45 calibre pistols and repeating shot. guns on the highways, some tourists continued on page 16. —New York Times. Fewer and briefer. She never for- got the pang of the first one that be- gan “Dear Mary,” turn to page 81. —Delineator. He waved his arms a little wildly, swayed to and fro, opened his mouth and continued on page 157. —Woman’s Home Companion. “What's the matter?” she asked in- stinctively, for the woman's pretty face continued on page 42. —Collier’s. CONDITIONS Lire will pay $1,000 in prizes for the best titles for the above picture. By “best” is meant the cleverest and shortest. The Editors of Lire will be the judges. Titles may be original or quotations from well known authors. They must not exceed twenty words. Contestants may submit as many titles as they wish, but none will be returned. The contest is now open to every- body and will close midnight July 31. Should two or more persons submit the same winning title, each one will be awarded the full amount of the prize tied for. The final award will be announced as early as possible after the close of the contest and checks will be sent simultaneously with the announcement of the awards. Address all titles to Lire’s Title Con- test, 598 Madison Avenue, New York, Zo Cuampion: Ya oughta do more scowlin’ and mutterin’, Bill. Remember this CONTEST CLOSES JULY 31. is a grudge fight! comicbooks.com