Life, 1929-08-16 · page 22 of 36
Life — August 16, 1929 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical proposal to relocate Coney Island amusement park attractions to Broadway's Times Square area. The author argues that Broadway lacks recreational value for middle-aged men, offering only theaters and speakeasies—the latter being counterproductive for rejuvenation. The cartoon illustrates couples enjoying carnival rides like roller coasters and Ferris wheels. The satire's point: amusement parks restore youthful vitality to aging men better than Broadway's conventional entertainment. References to "Monkey glands" (a 1920s pseudo-scientific rejuvenation treatment) and the nostalgic description of proving one's vigor through carnival activities suggest post-WWI anxieties about aging masculinity. The speakeasy mention dates this to Prohibition era. The proposal is tongue-in-cheek social commentary—criticizing both Broadway's stagnation and suggesting that simple, childlike pleasures offer better psychological rejuvenation than either alcohol or legitimate theater.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
20 Let's Go! HE Great White Way lacks one very essential thing . . . along its entire length there is nothing in the form of recreation which will bring back the glow of youth to the cheek of the tired young man about forty . . . in fact, most of its attractions work just the opposite way + true, there are one or two shooting galleries and there are several thousand speakeasies but any- one who has tried liquor as a rejuvena- tor knows that it car- ries you back entirely too far, with an even turther rebound. Carnival What Broadway needs is a few Roller Coasters, Merry-Go-Rounds, Shoot-T he- Shoots and that sort of thing. ... Coney Island, or at least Luna Park and the Cyclone ought to be packed up and moved into the middle of Times Sa 1° pe Square and then we'd have a real Mid- way! ... All the space between Forty- second street and Forty-seventh is prac- tically wasted now what with ham actors standing on curbs, cruising taxies and idle policemen . . . the triangle could be closed off and the best Amusement Park in the world built there. . . . Just imagine the Cyclone there! . . . and the saving! Why one drink in your favorite speakeasy and a ride on the Cyclone would save you the cost of four extra cocktails. Backward And it would give our old Men of Manhattan a chance to be boys again «the Coney Island atmosphere makes little boys out of old men quick- er than monkey glands . . . it takes them right back to their “show-off” days and gives them a chance to prove to their better halves or sweet- hearts that they are not dying on their feet... once more they are heroes. Turn Back- ward They show their prowess at shooting or throwinga baseball at a pig, or ringing a cane ... they laugh with boyish glee at the female shrieks as they shoot down the hill of a roller coaster and their hearts feel brave as the dear things cringe against their manly shoulders . . . and the touch of romantic youth comes to them once again as they glide hand in hand through the black tunnels of the “Old Mill” or the “Dragon's Gorge: Oh, Time in Thy Flight! Catching a brass ring on a Merry Go-Round will take ten years off of 3 man’s life . . . or sliding down a chute . .. or a bag of popcorn . . . it may add twenty the next day but he’s had his fling! comicbooks.com