Life, 1929-01-25 · page 14 of 36
Life — January 25, 1929 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes **cheap costume parties** for young people during the Depression era. The headline mocks the elaborate "fancy dress" parties that were fashionable but expensive. The main cartoon shows a woman in an exaggerated, impractical costume surrounded by chaos—she's tripping, losing her shoe, and causing mayhem. The caption ("How do you do, Mr. Jones—oh, don't get up") suggests social pretense collapsing into physical comedy. The accompanying list provides **seven humorous "budget costume" suggestions**: borrowing a grandfather's musket, going without pants as a "professor," cutting holes in a shirt as a "Klansman," and other absurd improvised disguises. The satire critiques both the expense of genuine costumes and the desperation of Depression-era youth trying to participate in fashionable entertainment on limited means.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tis week's stereopti- can lecture....“The Quaint and Curious Cus- tom of Costume Balls— They Cost too Much”. . If our memory serves us aright fancy dress parties used to be one of the joys of childhood now they scem to be the chief indoor sport of second childhood... our roaring “forties” and = “fifties” cover their puritanical in- hibitions with Neroesque regalia and make the old Roman orgies look like Sunday school picnics. What makes us all hot and bothered is that they make their darned fancy dress parties so fancy priced that we of the younger generation find ourselves sorely beset, so to speak, and on the outside look- ing in, which as you know, and you know you know, no young blood likes No. 1. A ....by the time we have paid for fancy costumes and fancy tickets there isn’t even enough left for taxi fare, and anyone who has sauntered along the main highways in a Louis Quinze outfit knows how embar- rassing that is. However, love will find a way, necessity is the mother of in- vention, and after months of research and experiment- ing we offer the fol- lowing suggestions on how to dress fancy on an income of $5 a week and up. 1. If you are the lucky owner of a ra- coon coat your trou- bles are practically over as this handy garment gives you four distinct changes No. 1. B of costume without cost. A. Cut off the “How do you do, Mr. Jones— oh, don’t get up.” arms and wear them as chaps— tie your muffler around your neck as a handkerchief, swipe a length of clothesline from any backyard and go as Will Rogers. To make the effect com- plete chew gum and keep repeating, “Wal, I see by the papers.” B. Strip to the waist, cut a square piece out of the back of your racoon, paste on your chest and go as Bernarr MacFadden. C. Crawl along floor on stomach with coat draped over you and they will think you are a tiger rug. With this system not even a ticket ought to be necessary. D. Cut off a short length of the sleeve and fem No. 1.C wear as a cap—borrow Grandpa's musket and go as Daniel Boone or Davey Crock ett. 2. Leave trousers at home and go as absent-minded professor. Forget to pay for ticket. 3. Cut two holes in shirt front, hang over head and go as a Klansman, 4. Give ticket taker a dime and say that you are John D. Rocke- feller. 5. Carry a_ book, walk in backwards and they'll think you are Gene Tunney. 6. Go three hours late and announce yourself as Jimmy Walker. 7. Wear your oldest clothes, carry 4 tin cup and some pencils and go as a theatrical producer. “Ben Shute ff No, 2 No. 3 comicbooks.com =e