Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 19 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a celebrity gossip column targeting Hollywood stars of the 1920s. The main story mocks actress Wanda Hawley for lying on her passport application—claiming to be a mere housewife named "Selma" rather than admitting her stardom. Federal investigators caught the deception and discovered her husband Burton had abandoned her. The column suggests her manager, J. Stewart Wilkinson, may be arranging overseas film work for her, implying possible impropriety. The brief items below report on other stars' personal troubles: Blanche Sweet's health issues, Gloria Swanson's impending divorce from Herbert K. Somborn, and Marshall Neilan's frequent unexplained absences. The final quip—comparing Marshall's marriage to Blanche to a failed vaccination—is cruel gossip suggesting the marriage won't last. The satire targets both celebrity hypocrisy and the invasive nature of 1920s Hollywood scandal-mongering.
📄 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 19 Hollywood Film Confidences WANDA HAWLEY has found she can't fib and get away with it. Not long ago she went to the Federal building in Los Angeles to ask for a passport to England and told the clerk she was Selma Hawley, a housewife. When asked if she wasn't the screen star, she vehemently denied the fact. A certain J. Stewart Wilkinson also asked for a passport "for an indefinite period of time." Now the passport folks, with a wary eye for criminals, did a little delving into "Selma's" past, and found that Wanda hadn't told the truth. They also disclosed the fact that Burton Hawley, the star's husband, had left her for parts unknown. Now Wanda explains that J. Stewart Wilkinson is only a sort of manager who may fix it up for her to play in pictures abroad. * * * Blanche Sweet is taking the milk cure at a sanitarium in Long Beach, Cal. The marital bonds of Gloria Swanson and her husband, Herbert K. Somborn, are about to be severed. Marshall Neilan's car parks out in Beverly Hills very frequently. The rumor still persists that Marshall's marriage to Blanche is like the vaccination that didn't take.