Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1922 · page 66 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #29 — page 66: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a promotional piece celebrating an Oklahoma oil town named after *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* magazine itself—apparently the first town to receive such an honor. The photograph shows a new, developing oil boom town with modern buildings and vehicles. The humor works on multiple levels: The text jokes about a truck labeled "Nitroglycerin" visible in the photo, then self-consciously reassures readers there's no actual danger. The magazine playfully claims its own "explosion" is metaphorical—meant to provide comedic relief ("blow out the spleen") to American readers rather than cause real destruction. This reflects *Whiz Bang's* brand of irreverent, slapstick humor popular in 1920s satirical magazines. The piece is essentially self-congratulatory advertising disguised as journalism, celebrating both the magazine's cultural reach and the economic boom represented by the new oil town.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Whiz Bang City, Oklahoma Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang is the first maga- zine to have a “city” named after it. The thriving little oil town of Oklahoma has been christened Whiz Bang City. The picture shown on this page is by courtesy of Vince Dillon, photographer of Fairfax, Okla. Upon close ex- amination, “kind readers” note that all of the buildings are new and that a truck standing in front of the garage bears the sign Nitroglycerine. However, there is no connection between nitro- glycerine and the Whiz Bang. It is true that we have an explosion, but ours is harmless, and used to blow out the spleen of the American human instead of Mother Earth. Well, anyway, folk, here’s wishing many happy days to Whiz Bang City and its live citizens.