Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1921 · page 34 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #28 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This editorial defends the film industry against moral panic. The "Calamity Janes" refers to sensationalist women who spread rumors that criminals—particularly female ones acquitted of crimes—inevitably get movie deals as a reward for notoriety. The editorial uses the real Beulah Binford case (a Virginia woman who shot her lover's husband circa 1912-1915) to argue this actually doesn't happen. Though Binford was released without prison time and a promoter did attempt to capitalize on her notoriety by offering her a film role, the editorial claims the picture was never completed or released—proving Hollywood doesn't actually star murderers. The satire targets pearl-clutching gossip and unfounded fears about cinema corrupting justice, while simultaneously criticizing the exploitation of crime victims by unscrupulous promoters seeking profit from scandal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
32 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Whiz Bang Editorials “The Bull is Mightier Than the Bullet.” THERE are many “Calamity Janes” in the U. S. A. One of their stock cries, just after a crime has been committed is, “If she gets off, she’s going in the movies!” Let us look at the real facts. Searching the history of the moving picture business, in not a single instance has a murder been starred in pictures. About seven or eight years ago a wealthy married man in Virginia was shot by his wife (or was it by a girl in the case?)—Beulah Binford—because he had trifled with her affec- tions. The courts proved the man a rotter, and because Beulah was a very young girl, she was released without a prison sentence. Beulah’s heart and life were broken and she wanted to bury herself in her little home town and try to start over again, but she needed money. An unscrupulous promoter from New York who thought he could profit by the notoriety caused by the crime, made her an offer to be starred in pictures. Beulah went to New York. The picture was taken but the