Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 22 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine consists entirely of Hollywood gossip items with no visible cartoons. The humor targets 1920s film industry figures and scandals: **Mae Busch**: The joke mocks how actresses only achieved stardom after becoming known for "delicious" immorality—referencing Valentino and Pola Negri as sex symbols. Her quote about wanting to be "much worse" plays on this manufactured scandalous image. **Nita Naldi**: A jab at Hollywood's casual morality—she's apparently so indifferent to propriety that a hotel had to insist she wear stockings (considered essential modesty). **Mary Miles Minter**: Gossipy commentary on her pursuit of married writer Louis Sherwin, implying his wife won't divorce him and Mary's theatrical comeback is consolation. **Eddie Foy**: A joke about Émile Coué's popular "auto-suggestion" self-help movement ("every day in every way, better and better"). The gag: Foy got so inspired he married again, expecting his seven children to multiply to eleven—mocking both the fad and large families. The satire reflects 1920s attitudes toward celebrity, morality, and popular movements.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
22 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang At the last Sixty Club Ball in New York, Rudolph and wives Number 1 and 2 were present the same evening. No casualties were reported. * * * MAE BUSCH has been playing in pictures for years and years but just got a star-ring contract with Goldwyn. Not until deliciously naughty persons like Valentino, Pola Negri, Nita Naldi—and Mae—became popular, did she get her chance. Now Mae can boldly assert (quoting Bert Savoy), “I’m not a bad woman; I’d like to be much worse.” * * * Nita Naldi is off Southern California because the Am-bassador Hotel told her she simply must wear stockings! * * * MARY MILES MINTER is in for a long wait if the object of her matrimonial desires is Louis Sherwin, well known writer and critic, for Mrs. Sherwin who, with the three little Sherwins, lives in a picturesque old mill at Oyster Bay, New York and who does a bit of writing herself, says she has no intention of giving Louis his freedom. Mary is going to New York, have her voice cultivated and return to the stage, she says. Remember, Louis may get tired of waiting, too, Mary! * * * Eddie Foy went to hear Coue, was inspired by the “better and better” stuff and got married again. Eddie voices the belief that the seven little Foys will soon become eleven.