Pistol Protest

An awful kaffir curse, loud blank shots, and much booming of Afric drums, marked the opening at a theatre in drowsy, medieval Prague, last week, of a U. S. thrill-drama, The Witch Doctor,* once known to Manhattanites as a poor imitation of White Cargo. After three of the characters had been clumsily and blatantly "killed" on the stage, famed Czechoslovakian Playwright Antoine Trych rose from his orchestra seat, drew an automatic pistol, and fired two shots over the heads of the actors. Amid the ensuing deadly hush, he cried: "I protest at the showing of this play in Prague! . . . Many Czechoslovaks, myself included, could have written a better!" Although some who sat near to Playwright Trych applauded his patriotic words, most of the audience took him to be a madman, rushed hugger-mugger from the playhouse.

*Opened as Cave Smoke (TIME, March 2, 1925).