Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, May 1922 · page 53 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #33 — page 53: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page discusses Hollywood gossip and scandal, primarily referencing the famous **Taylor murder case** (1922). The text mocks how the unsolved killing of film director William Desmond Taylor frightened movie celebrities into public propriety. The satire targets: 1. **Louis J. Selznick and his son Myron** — Hollywood producers/executives. Myron wants to promote an actress (Miss Laye, likely Evelyn Laye), but his father opposes the plan. 2. **Mary Miles Minter** — a flapper actress involved in the Taylor scandal. The columnist sarcastically notes she's finally acknowledged as nineteen (implying studios had lied about her age for years). 3. **Hollywood hypocrisy** — The piece mocks how the murder scared celebrities into behaving respectfully with their parents in public, only to resume normal behavior once scandal subsides. The joke: only murder makes movie fathers actually supervise their daughters. The overall tone satirizes Hollywood's moral flexibility and the industry's use of scandal for publicity.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 51 Miss Laye all about it. You can guess his popularity. But imagine Myron's surprise when he re- turned home and broached the new star to papa, Louis J. Selznick. Papa would have none of it. But Myron goes right on planning. He has even started a publicity campaign for Miss Laye. But the young lady is still dancing in Lon'on. Still, papa may relent. * * * * THE movie folk in the East are about as active as a brown bear in midwinter. You need an ear more acute than the hearing apparatus of a redskin to detect the faint sounds of secret social activities. The cinema celebrities just aren't taking chances. The way the Eastern newspapers have been playing up the Taylor murder has scared them to death. The bullet that ended the Los An- geles director's life has probably done more to bring fil-em husbands and wives together for the time being than anything short of a blast on the judgment day cornet. If the murder did nothing else, it at least established the fact that Mary Miles Minter has at last reached the age of nineteen. Mary has been eighteen for as far back as we can remember. Another interesting thing about cinema murder is the way it brings the movie fathers to life. The flapper stars move placid- ly along with their mammas in tow until the dire deed is done. Then the pappas appear,