Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1922 · page 20 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #35 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This gossip column exposes drug use among 1920s Hollywood elite. The piece alleges that a San Francisco man's Santa Monica bungalow hosts "dope parties" disguised as afternoon "tea," attended by film actors including Gloria Swanson—who the columnist suggests may have unknowingly attended. One guest "completely passed out," implying overdose. The satire mocks Hollywood's corruption and moral decay. The follow-up section coins "Hollywooditis"—a disease afflicting naive Eastern newcomers who succumb to the city's decadence and hedonism, contrasting disciplined "old timers" with weak newcomers. The piece satirizes both the drug culture and Hollywood's glamorous facade, suggesting that beneath the studio system's respectability lurked rampant substance abuse and moral compromise among celebrities.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 19 Silver Screen Shrapnel ONE of Whiz Bang's investigators just “stumbled” upon an innocent little dope party one Sunday afternoon not so long ago. In a modest little bungalow on Santa Monica Boulevard, not so far from the big studios, a San Francisco man has recently become domiciled. One can go there and take a party of friends for afternoon “tea.” Several men and women who play in pictures were there on the day in question, including Gloria Swanson, who perhaps didn’t know just what sort of a party she was attending. One young man had completely “passed out.” The coterie calling at this cottage is not large, and you must be very properly introduced to gain admittance. It’s there, all the same! * * * WE OLD TIMERS of Hollywood know how to control ourselves when pink rosebuds pop out on bushes on Christmas day, and birds sing lustily and every dazzle of sunshine is rife with romantic blind staggers. But it isn’t so easy for newcomers. Staid, dignified easterners prove weak subjects when the fever gets them. Some of them have “Hollywooditis”