Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1922 · page 54 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #29 — page 54: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains gossip and social commentary rather than cartoons. The main content mocks infidelity and exposes a vulnerability of adulterous men: they cannot report being robbed during illicit encounters without revealing their affairs to police—and thereby to reporters and the public. The text also includes celebrity scandal items. It notes actress Alice Brady's retirement, likely hinting at pregnancy. More substantially, it ridicules Texas Guinan, a famous entertainer and nightclub hostess, who spent fifteen hours in jail over an unpaid grocery bill. The passage jokes that prison guards were so smitten they cleaned up for her, suggesting her glamorous reputation preceded her even in custody. The satire targets both the hypocrisy of married men and the absurdity of minor debts landing celebrities in jail during this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
52 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang These desperadoes often take an auto of an evening, drive into the suburban towns or near the lonely stretches of Pacific beach, and hold up loving couples who are spooning in autos along the roadside. Now, you see if you happen to be married and are out with the pretty steno or an extra girl, and you are held up, relieved of diamonds, watches and money, you can't very well report it to the police, can you? Reporters have an annoying way of getting news from police chiefs and, regardless of your rage against thugs and hold-up men, you surmise it would be better to swallow your loss. * * * Domestic note—Alice Brady, who in private life is Mrs. Thomas Crane, has retired from stage and screen, it is said, in anticipation of an interesting family event. * * * F ROM “location” to a “one night stand” in the county jail was the recent plight of Texas Guinan, film beauty and former musical comedy favorite. Approximately fifteen hours the movie star basked in the bastile, and all on account of an unpaid old grocery bill. The turnkeys are glad she is out. They are willing she reign on Broadways if she will keep herself out of prison row. The tank heroes shaved themselves as never before, donned Sun-day neckties and bartered keepsakes for stand-ing room back of the great steel doorway where