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Qhapter XII
HOLLYWOOD— THE COMIC FILM
FRIEND, intent on gain, once took a travellingcinema plant to West Africa. He wanted to set up a cinema near the desert's edge at a town from which the caravans started toward Timbuctoo. He hoped to reap a small fortune by the enterprise, for here was a real example of the mountain coming to Mahomet. The ordinary cinema theatre, as the Albanian promoters had found to their loss, must continually change its films or audiences will fade away. This entails no small expense. But at this town a full half of the population changed every month, collecting gradually to join the caravans and emptying as soon as the caravans set out. So, instead of the owner having to bring new films to the audiences, Nature contrived to bring new audiences to the films.
That he never reached his destination is part of a longer story, but on the road he naturally tried to minimize expenses by showing as he moved. Thus, landing at Lagos he hired a huge courtyard with a balcony, open to the skies of heaven. This was by no means the first movie enterprise to delight the black population of Lagos, for he had two rivals. One was a Portuguese half-breed who tried to poison the new competitor, but dosed the wrong man ; the other was the negro woman, she who insisted on running the life of Christ upside down rather than cut her film. In our friend's repertoire was a film that drew all custom from the others : a picture by Charlie Chaplin.
On the day of his opening enthusiasm ran high. Black sandwich-men dressed as Charlies paraded the town. The
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