Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 55 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 55: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is satirical gossip about New York's influential theater clique—specifically critics and columnists who met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel. The piece attacks what it calls "log rolling" (mutual back-scratching promotion) by these self-styled "intellectuals." The target: prominent theater critics including **F.P.A.** (Franklin Pierce Adams of The World), **Alexander Woolcott** (The Times), and **Brock Pemberton** (incomplete). The satire alleges they collusively promoted certain plays and playwrights—naming Connelly and Kaufman's works "Dulcy" and "To the Ladies," plus Margalo Gillmore's performance in "He Who Gets Slapped." **The joke**: These arbiter figures claim intellectual superiority yet supposedly praise mediocre work merely because it's connected to fellow clique members, while New York audiences blindly follow their newspaper pronouncements. The satire mocks both the critics' self-importance and their cynical manipulation of public taste.
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Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 53 Gotham Gossip THE other day we heard two authorities on the theater talk of the present state of New York dramatic criticism and of the “log rolling” activities of a certain faction which meets daily for luncheon in the Algon- quin Hotel. This clique includes a number of critics and newspaper writers, plus their fav- ored friends, and its word is law in New York. They frequently get together and “make” a play, for New Yorkers are guided by what the newspapers say. Recently their activities in be- half of Messrs. Connelly and Kaufman, authors of “Dulcy” and “To the Ladies,” have been in- teresting. Both are “members of this club.” Then “the little circle of intellectuals,” as the log rollers call themselves, put over little Mar- galo Gillmore as a hit in “He Who Gets Slapped.” Margalo is the pet of the clique and the fact that she gives a feebly inadequate per- formance didn’t bother the “intellectuals.” With one voice they declared her adorable. Who are members of the little circle? F. P. A., the columnist of The World; Alexander Woolcot of The Times; Brock Pemberton, the