Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1921 · page 14 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #22 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1920s gossip column from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* satirizes Hollywood celebrities through scandalous anecdotes. The piece opens by mocking **Mildred Harris** and **Charlie Chaplin**'s recent marriage (1918), joking that Harris complained of Chaplin's absence and suggesting if actress **May [Navarre]** also married him, readers could observe two teenage wives' competing theories about spousal duties. The main target is silent comedian **Buster Keaton**, mocked for his enormous extended family that requires restaurants to combine tables. The satire peaks in an anecdote claiming Keaton literally imprisoned his father ("Pa") in his dressing room at Metro studio after a disagreement over Keaton's romantic choices, then continued his evening undisturbed. The joke concludes by suggesting that when Keaton marries actress **Natalie Talmadge** (which actually occurred in 1921), she'll need to lock his chaotic family in closets to maintain peace. The humor relies on readers' familiarity with these celebrities' personal lives and Hollywood's emerging tabloid culture.
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12 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Mildred Harris, too, was seventeen when she mar- ried Charlie and complained that the boy stayed away too much. Should May and Charlie hook up we may be able to watch the theories of two seventeen-year-old misses work out, as regards their ideas of what the lord and master should do. * * * WHEN Buster Keaton goes out in the evening he takes his whole family. There are so many of them we've lost count. Anyhow, when he goes down to Sunset Inn at Santa Monica the waiters have to move three tables and put them together so that all Buster's family can be seated. There are sev- eral sisters and as many younger brothers and a “Pa” and lots of aunts and uncles. And Buster cheerfully pays the bill. A little incident has been reported to the corres- pondent of this great family journal. It appears Bus- ter had been out with some lady of whom his father objected, or had done something which his “Pa” didn't like and there was an argument over at the Metro studio. “Pa” perhaps hasn't forgotten his ancient and pleasant right of parental authority. However, Buster is resourceful. It is said he put “Pa” in his dressing- room and locked him up for the night, going on about his own business thereafter. We wonder, if, when Natalie Talmadge marries Buster this spring, she will have to lock his family in the closets occasionally in order to prevent little rows!