Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 49 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 49: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical piece mocking Hollywood excess and moral hypocrisy in the 1920s. The text describes a secret party ("Sodom and Gemorrah cottage") where prominent film industry figures and high-society men engaged in wild revelry—including nude bathing—away from their wives and families, using private aeroplanes for transportation and quick escapes. The satire targets the double standard: these "big men of the pictures" publicly maintain respectability while privately indulging in scandalous behavior. References to "jaded appetites" and nude bathing parties allude to Hollywood's then-notorious reputation for moral laxity. The closing anecdote about a drunk pilot landing safely, plus the cryptic final line ("A bribe in time saves nine"), suggests law enforcement corruption—that even reckless or illegal behavior goes unpunished if properly paid off. The piece exposes the gap between Hollywood's public image and private conduct during the Jazz Age.
📄 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 47 unpleasantly. Over canyon and mountains many of the guests were carried by aeroplanes. This item will be news to some who think they are on the “inside” of the jazz doings around Los Angeles. The ultra ultras are putting it on stronger than ever—but far away from home, husbands and wives. Big men of the pictures and high social standings, who never bat an eye at certain queens of the amusement world when at work, joined in a carnival of revelry that surpassed most anything provided for jaded appetites hereabouts—not excepting the nude bathing parties for which Hollywood and Pasadena be- came famous with introduction of private bath- ing plunges, out of doors. Outside the Sodom and Gemorrah cottage, big powerful aeroplanes waited to carry back to Los Angeles those who find that an air trip to be very clarifying after a night of social car- nage. One man, it is reported, though brewed up like a boiled owl, landed his two passengers safely on one of the landing places near Holly- wood. There is first-hand information that brewed up airplane drivers have operated in the vicinity. To date the motor bike cops have found the pave too hot for them to pinch any one. * * * A bribe in time saves nine.