Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1922 · page 54 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #35 — page 54: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This gossip column satirizes **Willard Mack**, a stage actor/playwright, for financial irresponsibility. The joke: Mack rents a mansion while supposedly too preoccupied "thinking" plays to pay his bills—avoiding rent collectors, grocers, and butchers. The satire mocks his pretentious artistic priorities over basic obligations. A persistent rent collector literally camps on his steps for two days to collect payment. The column adds a punchline: Mack is rehearsing a vaudeville sketch about **Al Jennings** (a real former bank robber turned actor), sarcastically asking if the "famous bandit" has been teaching Mack criminal behavior—a witty comparison between financial deadbeating and actual crime. The second item (incomplete) references an exclusive Wilshire Boulevard residence offering discreet services to well-connected clientele, likely implying illicit activity. The satire targets Hollywood's financial chaos and moral looseness during the 1920s entertainment boom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 53 Hollywood Flirtations WILLARD MACK, just after his latest honeymoon, rented a mansion in the Wilshire district in Los Angeles and again began to “think” plays. It is said that Willard was so busy “thinking” plays that he was unable to descend to greet rent collector, grocer or butcher with their sheafs of bills. The rent collector, however, being a man of patience and knowing Willard had to get down to Pantages Theater to rehearse a sketch, sat himself on the front steps for a matter of two days until he was granted a personal inter- view. Willard displayed much outraged bombast, but still in arrears, conceded to move when this action seemed to be the only way to adjust the trifling trouble. Willard is rehearsing Al Jennings, the famous bandit, in a vaudeville sketch. Al, have you been teaching Willard bad tricks? * * * UP ON Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles’ most conservative and aristocratic street, there is a handsome residence where you can order anything you want. Of course, you and your friends must be known to the man-