Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 45 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This gossip column addresses Hollywood scandal involving silent-film stars. The piece denies a rumor that actor Owen Moore (ex-husband of Mary Pickford) plans to marry Mildred Harris (ex-wife of Charlie Chaplin). The satire mocks Nevada's inability to enforce divorce laws despite its reputation for easy splits. The column sarcastically notes Nevada was expected to demonstrate that even famous couples couldn't dissolve marriages there, yet proved "long on talk and short on official action." The final lines mock Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford's reconciliation with domestic imagery (carpet slippers, hair-smoothing), suggesting their marital drama was theater. The piece satirizes both celebrity gossip culture and Nevada's contradictory legal reputation regarding divorce during an era when marriage dissolution was controversial and legally complex.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 43 Our Rumor Department By Our Los Angeles Correspondent AN ENTHUSIASTIC reader sends us an epistle of inquiry. We cannot say that it is from “Paul” to the Corinthians, be- cause, though the correspondent signs “Paul,” our noble John Henry reads “Whiz Bang.” Paul wants to know whether or not it is a fact that there is anything to the rumor that Owen Moore, former husband of Mary Pick- ford, is due to marry Mildred Harris, late wife of Charlie Chaplin? So far as Whiz Bang knows, neither Owen nor Mildred have any wild desires to become as one. Mildred scarcely seems of a type that would appeal to the silent youngster whom Mary released at Minden. Speaking of Minden? Where is that place? Oh, yes, up in Nevada. Wasn’t it Nevada which was going to show the Fairbanks and Pickfords that such sudden splitting of the wedded bonds couldn’t be pulled off in that sanctified state? And didn’t Whiz Bang tip you off that Nevada was long on talk and short on official action. Yes, indeedy. Doug Fairbanks puts on the old carpet slippers and Mary smoothes his hair