Life — October 10, 1930 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Motor Trouble!" - Life Magazine, October 10, 1930 This cartoon satirizes early automobile culture and urban street life. Two men in hats share an umbrella during rain while standing with a small, scruffy dog next to what appears to be a delivery cart or early motorized vehicle (marked "$700"). The title "Motor Trouble!" suggests the joke concerns automotive problems or complications of motor transportation becoming common in urban settings. The wet conditions, the humble appearance of the figures, and their apparent inconvenience suggest satire about the gap between automobile ownership promises and the messy reality of early 1930s street life—just months before the Great Depression deepened. The cartoonist (signed "EDWINA") appears to be mocking the complications and indignities of modern motorized transport rather than celebrating it.