Postcards from Snagglepuss
The "why and wherefore" behind Whiz Bang Days, explained
Heavens to Captain Marvel ... just recently, your favourite cartoon characters from the Hanna-Barbera characters were gathered in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis even ... and basically being part and parcel for their annual celebration, Whiz Bang Days by name. And in case you're asking, some background:
Back in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection and World War I, a common vehicle of ordinance was the "Whiz Bang" mortar, named for the sounds it made from discharge and impact. Such doubtless inspiring Capt. Willard H. Fawcett, a Canadian-born newspaper correspondent who saw service in the Spanish-American and First World Wars. And returning from the latter to Robbinsdale, "Captain Billy," as he was fond of calling himself, began compiling a modest little sheet of bawdy humour and stories which he initially hoped would be a source of amusement to Robbinsdale-area war veterans.
That shell became the inspiration for its name, Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang, whose slogans included "Explosion of Pedigreed Bull" and "Farmyard Fun and Filosophy." The initial run of 5,000 copies, according to legend, after giving several copies to close war buddies, were sold to several hotel newsstands in Minneapolis, and at 25¢ a copy, sold out rather quickly. And before long, the bawdy humour, mixed with some ethnic jokes which nowadays would not be considered kosher, halal even, hypermasculine poetry and typographic erratum from newspapers around the country, quickly earned a following, in time selling as many as 300,000 copies a month ... and in the zenith of the Oklahoma oil boom, one of the boom towns took the name "Whiz Bang City," proof of the magazine's sheer popularity.
Not to mention the end-of-year Winter Annual, a double-sized volume of the best jokes and poetry from past issues and new material.
And before long, Captain Billy would use the profits from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang to build Breezy Point Resort on Pelican Lake north of Brainerd as a retreat for such Hollywood and Broadway celebrities as made the acquaintenance of the boy from Robbinsdale who made good, putting Robbinsdale on the map, eventually launching several other magazines such as True Romance, Mechanix Illustrated, Hollywood and numerous others, eventually including comic magazines and paperback novels. As for the Whiz Bang, such would continue until 1936, eventually done in by the likes of such upstart humor magazines like The New Yorker and Esquire, essentially copying the formula behind Whiz Bang ... but without much in the way of pooutside advertising. its circulation being built on word of mouth for the most part.
"Captain Billy" "himself" died of a heart attack in 1940, aged 54, and is burled in Minneapolis' Lakewood Cemetery.
Such is the legacy as Robbinsdale pays homage unto every summer.
By this time, we're heading to Glenwood, for the Waterama therein. So watch this space, and stay tuned even--or is it "cartooned"?
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