Life, 1929-02-08 · page 14 of 44
Life — February 8, 1929 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine features a satirical column titled "THIS IS THE LIFE!" by Bruce Jute, accompanied by social commentary about New York leisure activities. The text mocks wealthy New Yorkers' social habits, referencing specific venues like **Sherry's** (an upscale restaurant), **Robbers** (a theater), and the **Carnegie Athletic Club**. Jute recounts an overheard conversation where a woman boasts about knowing someone famous, only to be deflated by the response "No." The illustration below depicts a formal social gathering—likely a party or nightclub scene—showing well-dressed attendees in what appears to be satirical commentary on New York's elite social scene and their pretensions. The caption names prominent figures including the **Prince of Wales** and various socialites, suggesting this depicts an actual high-society event being gently mocked for its self-importance and superficiality.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
As a result of my plea for a new nom de plume letters have been pouring in at the rate of one a day....with such bright suggestions as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, John Roach Straton, Jimmy Walker, Jackie Coogan, Bobbe Arnst, Peggy Joyce and Walter Winchell... .my little readers haven't taken me seriously, I fear. Speaxine of Walter Winchell, the Lite Boy with the Nose for Wrong News sends this department a telegram evidently prompted by a pre-view of my first page. “HAW HAW FUNNIEST THING I EVER SAW (Did you know he was a poet?) THANKS TO RUSSELL TOO AM STILL LIMP GOOD LUCK AND GOOD WISHES YOURE DOING SWELL”... maybe I shouldn't have brought this up! Have you, and if you're anybody at all of course you have, and you must be or you wouldn’t be reading this page, seen those advertisements that “From a Sand- wich to a Four Dollar Breakfast Reu- bens” is running in the New Yorker? .. well, if you have, and you’ve just admitted you have, Russell Ziegfeld Patterson gives you a rough idea below of what you may expect to see if you drop in at Robbers, I mean Reubens, after the theatre any evening. Prize story of the week very doggy party at Sherry’s....the lady on my left and a regular if ever you saw one, kept looking curiously at the lady on my right finally whispered in my ear “Do you know that woman that’s trying to high hat me?” “No,” said I, hoarsely, “Do you”...“Do I!” she giggled, “We used to carry spears together in the same chorus!” Have you been over to Hoboken to see that stirring mellerdrama “After Dark, or Neither Maid, Wife nor Widow?” if you don’t know how to get there, take the 23rd Street ferry, beer right, beer left, then keep on beering. .. Christopher Morley the man behind the bung, says that they are doing such a big business they'll have to move into Lager quarters, Manna-Asout-Town The Jazz Opera, Jonny Spielt Auf at the Metropolitan. Beatrice Lillie at the Lido The Carne. gie Playhouse, a movie theatre on 57th Street, with lounges, card rooms and, no fooling, a Ping Pong room for the pleasure of its patrons the pleasure rooms are becoming so popular that they are think- ing of turning the movie auditorium into a skating rink and calling the place “The Carnegie Athletic Club”... the beggar along Broadway with the Knox label in his hat... .Zelma O'Neal singing “I Went to be Bad” in “Follow Thru” and tha bugle accompaniment of Tommy Gotts The Chili on 7th Ave. at 47th St. the current issue of American Sketch the Address Book containing the 17 Best Speakeasies uncovered in the re cent investigation which some enterprising reporters are bootlegging. Left to right—Prince of Wales, Beatrice Lillie, Beau Jeste, Herbert Hoover, Dolores del Rio, Paul Whiteman, Helen Morgan, Will Rogers, Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Mayor Walker,’ Betty Compton, H. L. Mencken, Grover Whalen, Al Smith, Helen Kane, Alexander Woolcott.! comicbooks.com