Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1921 · page 17 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #28 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct pieces of satirical content: **Upper section**: A critique of a legal case involving "artistic photographers" prosecuted for obscenity. The satire mocks how defendants evaded serious punishment (San Quentin) by claiming their nude photography was "artistic." The quote "every woman seems to feel that she has the form divine" sarcastically suggests the flimsy justification used. The piece ridicules both the legal system's leniency and the transparent hypocrisy of calling exploitative photography "art." **Lower section**: A humorous personal anecdote about reconnecting with two Minneapolis Journal reporters—Jim Callahan and Chris Helin—now working for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner. The joke is that these midwesterners have become "back sliders" who evangelize California real estate to visiting friends, having abandoned their Minnesota roots. It's gentle mockery of transplants who adopt local boosterism.
📄 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 15 high social rank in the city—to testify, by way of the indisputable means of photographs, that my clients are nothing more than artistic photographers, specializing in taking photos of women in the nude.” It is a rather singular fact that the con- tinuance was granted, that little more was heard about the case and that instead of being sent to San Quentin for fifty years the de- fendants got off with light sentences. Asked how they could account for these women posing in the Altogether, one of the “Artistic photographers” replied, “Well, every woman seems to feel that she has the form divine.” * * * RUNNING across old friends is one of the best things you do on these jamborees. Here in ’Frisco I found two old Minne- apolis Journal men holding down important jobs—Jim Callahan, now business manager of the Examiner and generally considered one of Hearst’s “right hand” men, and Chris Helin, manager of The Examiner’s Automobile De- partment. I am sorry to say that they are both back sliders and wouldnt’ trade the nip of the peninsula for half of Minnesota. Funny how these fellows go loco when they reach California. Really, folks, you wouldnt’ expect your friends to try to sell you real estate, would you?