Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1922 · page 14 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #29 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a book review page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, a 1921 satirical magazine. The critic reviews several literary works and entertainments targeting "flappers" (young women of the Jazz Age). The reviews discuss morality tales by W. Somerset Maugham and stories about infidelity and youthful rebellion. The critic notes that "Getting Gertie's Garter"—a sexually suggestive work—was once scandalous but has lost its shock value because women's fashion (shorter skirts) has made garters less provocative. The satire targets both the works themselves (calling some "decadent" and "insolently sensational") and the era's changing moral standards. The critic suggests that what once scandalized society is now mundane, reflecting broader 1920s anxieties about rapidly shifting social norms and youth culture defying Victorian propriety.
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12 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang a moral in the experiences of their elders. At the end they dash away to investigate the illicit love-in-a-cottage stuff themselves and Mr. Maugham points out that in life it doesn't matter “what you do as much as what you are.” And also that “you can do anything in this world if you're prepared to take the conse- quences and consequences depend on character.” All of which is excellent mental food for the 1921 flapper. Then there is Cosmo Hamilton's “The Silver Fox,” a little epic of a philandering wife with a penchant for young men and abbreviated socks. Clever, too, but decadent. Also we might note “Ambush,” the opus of a young woman who likes pretty things and who is aided and abetted by her mother. Papa is a poor commuter who wakes up when daughter introduces a flip and married gentle- man friend. When he protests, daughter slaps his face and snaps “Damn you!” Still, there is some excuse for “Ambush.” At least it is well written. Here we turn to the plain every day efforts to be insolently sensational at any price. “Getting Gertie's Garter” (note the chaste title), was one of the earliest of the sexly stimulants. But garters have lost their vogue and, anyway, the short skirts have ruined their novelty. So the piece did not seriously upset New York.