Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 13 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a gossip column satirizing Clara Smith Hamon's attempt to enter Hollywood filmmaking. Hamon was a real figure involved in a 1920s Oklahoma oil scandal—she was acquitted in a shooting case in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The column mocks her efforts to produce a "reform" photoplay (silent film) based on her life story, ostensibly to warn young women about wealthy oil magnates. The satire targets her difficulty recruiting talent despite offering high salaries ($500-$750 weekly) allegedly funded by $10,000 left by Jake Hamon (an oil tycoon she was connected to). The mockery lies in the irony: her morality-tale project struggles to find collaborators, and the publication presents this as amusing Hollywood gossip. The piece reflects contemporary skepticism about both Hamon's credibility and her filmmaking ambitions.
📄 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 Our Movie Gossip BY RICHMOND THE Whiz Bang is hearing all sorts of rumors and gossip wheezes from the movie camps surrounding the City of Angels, regarding the antics of Clara Smith Hamon, who recently was freed in the Ardmore, Oklahoma, shooting case and who is now attempting to break into the picture game with her “life story” to teach young girls to beware of oil kings and others. According to the concensus of whisperings, Clara is having a difficult time getting studio artists to work for her in the production of the alleged “reform” photoplay. It is reported she is offering fabulous salaries from the fund of $10,000 which Jake Hamon is supposed to have left her, in an endeavor to put over the picture. One camera man said he was offered $500 a week, and Mason Litson, former Goldwyn director, was reported to have turned down an offer of $750 a week.