Life — August 15, 1930 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Room Service" - Life Magazine Satire This is a comedic sketch about hotel accommodations and sleep difficulties. The dialogue presents **Mr. and Mrs. Schriber** being interviewed by **Mr. Palmer**, apparently conducting a psychology experiment for Colgate University about how hotel guests sleep. The humor centers on **domestic absurdity**: Mrs. Schriber complains her husband nearly drowned in the bathtub at 4 a.m., while Mr. Palmer offers increasingly ridiculous dream-analysis questions. The accompanying illustration shows a woman near a bird bath, with the caption "Before you go would you mind filling the bird-bath?" suggesting confusion between hotel amenities. The satire mocks both the pretensions of early **psychology departments** conducting dubious "scientific" studies and the chaos of hotel living.