Life, 1929-01-18 · page 13 of 44
Life — January 18, 1929 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Top Cartoon:** A court jester delivers gossip through a heavy vault door to a woman in royal dress. The caption reads "The court jester receives a piece of domestic information." This satirizes how court gossip and domestic scandals spread, likely mocking both the jester's role as information-carrier and the woman's eager reception of rumors. **Text Piece "She Had a Swell Brain":** A dialogue between a man and woman debating whether intelligence or physical attractiveness matters more in romantic relationships. The woman argues that brains are essential; the man eventually admits intelligence is important but suggests physical attraction initiates romance. The piece satirizes gender expectations and dating attitudes of its era, with the final line crediting Lloyd Mayer suggesting this is humorous commentary on romantic contradictions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The court jester receives a piece of domestic information. She Had a Swell Brain Sue: I don’t think a girl who's really pretty has to be bright or anything to attract men, do you? He: Not at first, but no intelligent man can keep on seeing a girl who's terribly dumb even if she’s beautiful. Sue: I s'pose that’s true, isn’t it?” He: Yeah—you bet. - Sue: But don’t you think awfully few girls who are-beautiful are really intelli- gent? He: Well, there aren't many of them, I guess. Sue: Because I mean usually a girl who's terribly pretty doesn’t ever bother to improve her mind or anything because I mean she gets so much attention any- ways she doesn’t have to worry about being intelligent. He: But I don’t think a man can really ever fall in love with a dumb girl if he's got any sense. Sut: Don’t you really? I mean I know ps of girls who are terribly attractive and all but they actually haven't got a I've overdrawn my account here and I wos- der if you could loan me three dollars to pay my taxi fare? | brain in their head and yet loads of aw- fully nice boys are madly infatuated with them, He: Well, I've never liked a girl who wasn’t bright, no matter how attractive she was. Sue: But I think it’s actually just physical attraction that makes a man like a girl in the first place, don’t you really think it is? He: Yeah—at first, maybe—but she's got to show something besides that if you're to keep on liking her. Sue: Well, I s'pose that’s it, isn’t it? Gosh, I wish people wouldn’t just keep saying I'm pretty, because I mean I'd heaps rather have them think there was something more to me than just being attractive physically, do you know what I mean? He: But there is. Anybody can see you've got a lot of intelligence. Sue: Oh, go on—you're just flattering me, but it’s awfully sweet of you to say so! Lloyd Mayer. comicbooks.com