Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 22 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is gossip-column satire about 1920s New York theater and bohemia. The main targets are: **Greenwich Village gentrification**: Wealthy outsiders ("purse-proud") have invaded the artistic "Latin Quarter," driving up rents so badly that actual Villagers flee to Brooklyn—presented as social death for bohemians. **Nicky Arnstein scandal**: A real fugitive bond robber married to Ziegfeld Follies star Fannie Brice allegedly hid in her dressing room while police searched, disguised as her maid. This mocks both the criminal and the audacity of the deception. **Ziegfeld's chorus changes**: The impresario plans to hide male chorus members offstage because audiences don't want to see them—reducing them to mere "noise like a drum." This satirizes theatrical vanity and the objectification of performers. The final anecdote about a "movie girl" joining the Follies and being shocked by backstage behavior suggests moral corruption or hedonism behind glamorous appearances.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
20 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Garret" has given the Village solemn warning that if any more dark tinged lonely souls come along she is going to close "The Garret" and move out of the Village. But if it comes to that, everybody else is moving out of the Village anyhow. So many purse-proud outsiders have invaded New York's Latin Quarter that the rents are mur-der in the first degree. The real Villagers are moving out to Brooklyn—than which there could be no worse fate for a Villager. Ziegfield Follies girls tell me that all the time the police were supposed to be searching for Nicky Arnstein, the alleged bond robber, Nicky was in his wife's dressing room. He is married to Fannie Brice of the Follies and used to come to the show every night disguised as her colored maid. Now that we are on the topic, a burning piece of information should be hurried out to the waiting world. Ziegfield says that here-after he is going to have all the chorus men in the show sing from behind the scenes. No-body wants to see them anyhow. Hereafter, they just represent noise—like a drum. A little movie girl of my acquaintance has recently joined the Follies and what she sees behind the scenes at the Famous beauty show fills her with awe for the human appetite.