Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 24 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains several humor items typical of 1920s American satire magazines: **"Gay Old Paree"** lists wealthy American tourists (predominantly Jewish names) registered in Paris hotels—likely satirizing both the postwar leisure travel of affluent Americans and ethnic stereotypes about Jewish wealth and tourism. **The drunk joke** plays on bawdy humor common to the era: a married man drunkenly mistakes his wife's sleeping berth for an empty one, addressing two "young ladies." **"The Older the Baldhead"** depicts generational awkwardness at a burlesque show—a young man embarrassed to be caught watching by his father in the audience. **The remaining items** are mild domestic humor: avoiding a date through maternal interference, and a punning dialogue between undergarments ("I've been upon a bust"). Overall, this represents typical early-20th-century men's magazine humor: ribald jokes, ethnic references presented as comedy, and mild social commentary targeting contemporary leisure culture and family dynamics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
24 Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang Gay Old Paree (From New York Herald Special Paris Correspondence) Americans who have registered at the Paris hotels this week are the following: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Dreyfus, Mrs. G. Augusta Cohen, M. S. Gerald Cohen, Mrs. Morris Meyer, Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Wiener, Miss S. Wiener, N. S. Kupfsky, I. Rosenthal, wife and children, Asher Solomon, Mr. and Mrs. Morris Kohlberg, Samuel Greenblatt, Mr. and Mrs. Sigmund Baer, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Gold- schmidt, Rabbi Louis P. Garfunkel, Henry Goldfarb and wife, Montague Levy, Jascha Blumenthal and party, and several hundred others. * * * Drunk, peering into berth in which the fair wife is asleep: “Shay, one of you two young ladies’ll have to get out of my berth.” * * * The Older the Baldhead, etc. A boy stood back on the galiery floor, At the naughty girlie show, And cast his earnest glance o’er Bald-headed sin below. “I’m too far back,” he sadly said; Yet he dared not foreward go, For he saw his aged father’s head First in the foremost row. * * * We asked our girl to go to church Sunday night, but her mother invited herself along—so we went to church. * * * “O, corsets,” said the camisole, “You don’t look well tonight.” The stays replied: “Upon the whole, I think I’m rather tight. But you yourself don’t look too well; There’s nothing wrong, I trust,” The camisole said, “Truth to tell, I’ve been upon a bust.”