Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1921 · page 11 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #16 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks high-society snobbery through director D.W. Griffith's premiere of "Way Down East." Griffith, absent in New York, had his representatives invite select prominent society women to the film's opening, apparently featuring Mrs. Belmont (a real socialite) in a minor role. When not all society women received invitations, widespread outrage erupted via telephone—women questioned why rivals were chosen over them, treating the invitation as a social ranking. The satire targets the vanity and insecurity of "high-brow" society ladies, suggesting Griffith deliberately exploited their status-consciousness as clever publicity. The piece concludes that society women lack "brains, poise and downright self-respect," having allowed themselves to be manipulated by a filmmaker's calculated social maneuvering.
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Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 9 place to arrange the legal break and figures her dear judges or lawmakers were slip-shoddy she should get some new judges and lawmakers. What is done is done. Reel Two. Recent presentation of the new Griffith play, “Way Down East,” caused a laughable situation for those who were aware of the facts. The laughable situation did not get into the newspapers because some of our very best families would have suffered humilia- tion. It appears that “D. W.” issued several invita- tions to prominent society women for the opening night, as his “guests”—though he was in New York. What a flurry and flutter there was among the high-brows when they learned that the invites had gone out. Who had been asked? It did not occur to the high-brow ladies that D. W. Griffith is truly the master mind of pictures and that his use of Mrs. Belmont in the picture was smart bait to draw society. Mrs. Bel- mont really didn’t have much to do but appear in an up-to-date gown and give Lillian Gish a haughty look. But society here went daffy when it became known that some society women had been invited by Mr. Grif- fith’s representatives, while others had not. Immedi- ately there was a buzz of phones and considerable indignation, denouncements and heart-burnings seared the wires. “How came it that Mrs. Such and So had been invited and ‘I’ have not? It reflects upon my so- cial standing.” How crafty old D. W. must have grinned as the reports went into him of the society ladies’ wrath. For lack of brains, poise and downright self-respect society