Days of Thrills and Laughter

Narrator:
[Porters drop a crate at a party, revealing a lion inside] This is a coming-out party, and look what's coming out.

Narrator:
The crooks get collared. The hotel manager gets the loot. Arthur gets congratulated. Cupid gets Arthur's girlfriend Martha. And, oh my goodness, the lion gets Arthur.

Narrator:
This is one of those revolution-torn republics, where mothers scare their kids by telling them they'll someday be President. Wiliest of the bomb-dodgers is El Presidente Snub Pollard. The year is 1922, which shows how little times have really changed.

Narrator:
[Last lines; a 1910 audience departs from a nickelodeon] These, then, were the days of thrills and laughter. A time so long past, that the youngest members of this departing audience are today in their fifties. As for the laughmakers and thrillmakers, they too have vanished. Leaving behind no successors, but only moving shadows. So the crowds depart. The show is over. And alas, dear friends, our little show is over, too.