"
"Well, you can't go in; we're here to shut up this show!"
I had stepped to one side as I spoke, and he caught me by the arm. I
thought there had been talk enough, and gave a sudden lurch, and
tore my arm free. "Hold on here!" he shouted, and tried to stop me
again; but I sprang through the crowd towards the box-office. There
were more than a hundred civilians in or about the lobby, and not
more than twenty or thirty ex-service men maintaining the blockade;
so a few got by, and I was one of the lucky ones. I bought my
ticket, and entered the theatre. To the man at the door I said: "Who
started this?"
"I don't know, sir. It's just landed on us, and we haven't had time
to find out."
"Is the picture German propaganda?"
"Nothing like that at all, sir. They say they won't let us show
German pictures, because they're so much cheaper; they'll put
American-made pictures out of business, and it's unfair
competition."
"Oh!" I exclaimed, and light began to dawn. I recalled Dr. Henner's
remark about producing a great many ideas out of a very little food;
assuredly, the American picture industry had cause to fear
competition of that sort! I thought of old "T-S," as the screen
people call him for short--the king of the movie world, with his
roll of fat hanging over his collar, and his two or three extra
chins! I though of Mary Magna, million dollar queen of the pictures,
contriving diets and exercises for herself, and weighing with fear
and trembling every day!
III
It was time for the picture to begin, so I smoothed my coat, and
went to a seat, and was one of perhaps two dozen spectators before
whom "The Cabinet of Dr.
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