Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 52 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 52: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical gossip column mocks 1920s Hollywood and theater figures. Key targets: **Hayakawa**: Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor trapped by racist casting that confined him to "sinister yellow villain" roles despite his talent—commentary on racial stereotyping in early cinema. **Owen Moore**: An actor sued by a garage keeper for unpaid car maintenance, who denied ownership. The joke: forgetful, irresponsible celebrities. **"The Rear Car"**: Edward Rose's play that studios frantically bid over, with Goldwyn paying $17,500 before it flopped before reaching Broadway—mocking Hollywood's wasteful competition and poor judgment. **Nita Naldi**: An actress who adopted an Italian stage name despite being Irish-American ("Dooley"). The satire ridicules both her ethnic name-switching and the magazine's crude ethnic stereotyping ("Mama was a wop!"). The column uses gossip and mockery to expose Hollywood's racial prejudices, financial excess, and superficiality—typical 1920s tabloid satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
52 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang thriller which died after a few weeks on the road. Hayakawa is another instance of the weird workings of fate. Here is an excellent actor who never seems to be able to get a good role, either on the silversheet or the stage. Racial barriers forever doom him to play sin- ister yellow villains or worthy saffron gentle- man who love but lose nobly. * * * These film stars—bless 'em—are forgetful. F'instance' there's Owen Moore. A New York garage keeper recently got a judgment against him on the claim that the actor forgot all about the little item of a three months' bill for his car's upkeep. Owen declared the car wasn't his'n— and there you are. * * * THE New York stage world is still laughing over the way the movie magnates on the coast were bidding against themselves to get Edward Rose's drama, “The Rear Car,” which was tried out in Los Angeles. Finally Goldwyn purchased it for $17,500. Then the Selwyns brought the play East and it promptly failed before it could even reach Manhattan. Thus the Goldwyn forces kicked in $17,500 for a cold flop. * * * My, my, so Nita Naldi's real name isn't quite so Italian after all. For we hear that Nita actually sports (or at least she once did) the cognomen of Dooley. Ye Gods of the Cinema! Anyway, Nita showed discrimina- tion in picking a worthy electric-light name. At that, Nita isn't all Irish. Mama was a wop! We say all this comicbooks.com