Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1921 · page 13 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #19 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains **no cartoon or illustration**—it's purely text presenting a gossipy anecdote about Hollywood scandal. The piece recounts an alleged incident involving an unnamed famous film producer and a notable female comedienne from "several years ago." The narrative describes the producer physically assaulting the woman after discovering her with another man (who was himself married), leaving her severely injured. The story emphasizes the producer's power: he used financial incentives to silence her sister and provided a payoff to the victim, avoiding legal consequences. The satire targets **Hollywood's culture of impunity**—wealthy, "nationally known" producers could commit violence with virtual immunity, buying silence and continuing their careers while their victims' prospects were destroyed. The piece suggests this was known gossip among "newspaper folk" but remained unpublished, mocking both the film industry's corruption and the press's complicity in covering it up.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 11 “happily,” of course, with the wronged husband satis- fied that he hasn’t been cheated beyond a pardonable degree. Many people may have wondered what became of a girl who several years ago was probably the most noted of the film comediennes. She didn’t seem ever to be the same following an episode between herself and one of the big producers, a man nationally known. The story was never published, but a penitentiary term stared this big gun in the face had the girl died. It seems that the producer had a well oiled case on her, but became enraged one night when, upon visiting her home, he discovered another man had made con- siderable inroads, so far as appearances went. The best dope—and the newspaper folk knew of it—is to the effect that the famous producer dragged the girl around by the hair and gave her such a maul- ing that she was in bad physical condition for some time. The story goes that the girl’s sister was given a substantial bonus to make herself scarce, but remained in town, vowing that if her sister died she would expose the whole mess. The man whom the producer caught with the girl comedienne was married. This would have added to the complications. Fortunately for everyone concerned, the girl survived, though it is said her health never has been so good. The repentant producer treated her handsomely in a financial way, but she has never risen high in pictures since and apparently has left the films for good.