Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, May 1921 · page 12 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #20 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine recounts a Hollywood scandal at what appears to be a hotel event. The text describes two unnamed male comedians—one described as "heavy" and "jolly," the other famous for never smiling—who brazenly carried bottles (likely alcohol during Prohibition) into a dining room, causing controversy among the film colony attendees. The author defends their behavior as relatively harmless, then pivots to criticize cross-dressing male performers at the same event who wore "feminine attire" and "lace tights." The piece frames these performers as dangerously emasculated, contrasting them unfavorably with the comedians' "hip pocket protrusion" (the bottles). The satire attacks Hollywood morality while simultaneously defending alcohol consumption and masculinity against what it presents as gender-nonconforming behavior—reflecting 1920s attitudes toward both Prohibition violations and gender presentation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
10 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang flushed may have been a problem that puzzled and net-tled those responsible for the good name of the house so far as Uncle Sam is concerned. At any event the fiddlers left and the impression went about that the hotel people weren't going to stand for the party get-ting rough. Into the main dining-room, before the evening was well started, two of our leading male comedians strode, both with an ill-concealed bottle protruding from the usual pocket. One of these comedians is a heavy gen-tleman and a jolly one. The other is gaining fame as a comedian because he never is known to smile. Just what was in the bottles cannot be proved, but the incident caused some words of criticism from other members of the movie colony, who figured the boys were “putting it on” a little too strong in view of the assemblage present, ever ready to declare that the “movies” are impossible. But these two cheerful individuals, at the worst, were only mistaken if they really intended to show off or be funny or daring. Many a person present would have been glad to join them, in consideration of their hip pocket protrusion. Yet the occasion, the time, the place, and so on, made it seem a bit garish. But what about the rouge-soaked males in femi-nine attire, and displaying toe to hip extremes, garbed in lace tights, whose every movement, look and word indicated absence of the masculine instinct as they pranked and tripped about the ballroom floor, mingling with dainty women and stalwart males who moved