Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1922 · page 7 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #35 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is editorial commentary defending *Whiz Bang* magazine against a female reader's complaint that the publication was mocking kissing as a "sacred custom." The author (likely the magazine's editor) responds mockingly: kissing is common even among Puritans and appears constantly in American literature—it carries no erotic significance. He then provides examples: Lucy Terrill's novel contains 26 kisses, mostly on non-lips areas (neck, throat, shoulder) to maintain propriety. He alludes to his own past—an "Indian Guide" named Gus who worked in Hollywood, and casual kissing at "Breezy Point Lodge." The satire targets both the prudish reader and American literary hypocrisy: novels are saturated with kissing scenes yet claim they're innocent. The author dismisses the complaint as overly earnest ("more ardor than reason"), suggesting the "Tulsa vigilant friend" (the letter-writer) has misunderstood *Whiz Bang's* lighthearted tone. The piece exemplifies 1920s magazine humor mocking sexual propriety while technically maintaining it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
6 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang writer doubtless a nice little lady—but—she had a grievance against Whiz Bang because it was bringing kissing into disrepute by frequent quips at this sacred custom that has been hand- ed down the ages. Bless you, my little lady, kisses are as the autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Val- lombrosa in all literature of the American bour- geoisie. Even our most holy puritans kiss somebody—on week days—and probably them- selves get kissed occasionally on their own weak ends. Kisses don't signify anything erotic in American novels or periodicals. They don't even suggest anything. I counted 26 kisses in Lucy Terrill's “A Thing Apart,” the other night—about two per chapter. Lucy's hero seldom kissed the heroine on the lips where kisses are legitimate—his favorite osculations were on neck, throat and shoulder. I suspect, too, that my old Indian Guide, Gus, who forsook us for livelier Holly- wood, used to smack Maggie, the cook, on the beezer at Breezy Point Lodge last summer when nobody was looking. If this were a confessing day I fear this old farmer might be able to tell a few, himself, but it isn't, and anyway when Captain Billy loses his love for the good old-fashioned kissing smack he will be so old that the mosquitoes will not bite him. I fear our Tulsa vigilant friend has dissected us with more ardor than reason,