Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 30 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This gossip column satirizes Hollywood's romantic entanglements in the early 1920s. The piece mocks the era's "Cupid" (romantic chaos) by tracking interconnected affairs among silent film stars: Kenneth Harlan, Flo Hart, Lottie Pickford, Alan Forrest, and Lowell Sherman. The satire's targets are: 1. **Hollywood instability**: Stars constantly switching partners, divorcing and remarrying 2. **Post-WWI moral anxiety**: The opening references "Cupid" being "shell shocked" since the war—suggesting modern morality has become confused and damaged 3. **The Arbuckle scandal**: References to "Fatty Arbuckle's parties" allude to the famous actor's 1921 assault scandal, implying widespread moral corruption in Hollywood 4. **Hypocrisy**: Women divorcing men for infidelity while engaging in it themselves ("the tables have been turned") The tone is sardonic, treating celebrity romantic drama as absurd theater while implicitly criticizing the era's loosening sexual standards—a typical conservative concern of early-1920s satirical magazines.
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28 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang party” and was often seen with her. He roused her interest in woman suffrage and Freud and the subjects in which he is interested. Miss Deshon heeded no warnings about Max and when the slump in the movies occurred, she went east, presumably to be near him as she took up her residence in Washington Square. It is said that a quarrel with “handsome Max” and accusations of infidelity on her part, pre- ceded her tragic death. Has “handsome Max” changed his views? * * * CUPID SEEMS to have been shell shocked ever since the war. His erotic wiring system is crossed and recrossed. For instance. We’ve recently heard about Kenneth Harlan’s divorce from Flo Hart and how Kenneth formerly “kept company” with Lottie Pickford until the latter decided to marry Alan Forrest. All right. For the moment we have Lottie and Alan settled. Now comes the news that Lowell Sherman’s wife (Lowell, you remember attended the Ar- buckle party at the St. Frantic Hotel in Frisco) is suing for divorce because he is paying too much attention to Flo Hart. They say Sher- man hopes to marry Flo so perhaps when the legal moment arrives, they will “settle” too. Mrs. Semnacher didn’t divorce “Al” because he went to parties like Fatty Arbuckle’s. In- stead, the tables have been turned and “Al” has