Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 58 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 58: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece mocks New York's embrace of exotic entertainment and moral loosening in the 1920s. The author sarcastically describes "hula" performances by performers with obviously non-Hawaiian names (Agnes, Mabel, Becky) from Brooklyn and Times Square—exposing the artificiality of the spectacle marketed to tourists seeking "exotic" thrills. The satire targets both the entertainers' obvious fakery and the audience's gullible consumption of manufactured eroticism. By comparing New York's trend to Paris and Berlin's post-war nude dancing scenes, the piece suggests America is following Europe's path toward "bored eroticism"—entertainment for jaded urban consumers willing to pay for increasingly explicit shows under thin pretexts of cultural authenticity or intellectual legitimacy (like the husband's "lecture" preceding undress). The underlying critique: modernity, tourism, and moral decline are commercializing sexuality.
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56 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang lack of evidence, although the detectives de- clared the young ladies were very scantily clad, mostly in straw and a smile, and that the dance was performed by that part of the anatomy considerably north of the knees. Between dances the hula maids circulated among the diners and squirted perfume upon lucky—or unlucky—males. FAR be it from us to pass upon the morals of the dance done by Gilda and her girls— honest Hawaiians from Brooklyn and Times Square with such pagan names as Agnes, Mabel and Becky. For the sake of honesty, we'll concede that a lot of cuticle was displayed. At one or two other restaurants, a more exotic note is offered the jaded Broadwayite by negro chorus girls. All these things are indications of New York's march along the path of bored eroticism. Paris has had this sort of thing, largely maintained for the American tourist, a long time. There still are plenty of places where the American, seeking to see the under- world of wicked Paris, can observe a ballet of nude girls dancing about his table. Recently Berlin has been going through the same thing. Since the old restraints were tossed aside with the revolution, the nude has been paraded in public. Back in 1920 a dancer named Celly de Rheidt, wife of an army lieu- tenant, began giving nude dances in private concert halls, the last word in undress being preceded by a lecture by the young lady's hus-