THE BANANA
NARATOR- Possibly The Voice of the "wise-guy smart-Alec " who narrated the Harold LLoyd
compilations on bbc2 at tea time when I was a kid. Or maybe Stan Laurel...
NARATOR - What's that Buster?....You've discovered a new "bit'!....?
Tell me about it.... Well, I say 'tell me....'
I mean.....
Mime it out with your eloquent, impassive, mask-like face and innate,
balletic physicality, as we walk down the newly laid sidewalk of this
minor Los Angeles suburb, still lined with orange groves, called
"Hollywoodland", on a sunny afternoon in 1914.
By the way, you do know, you CAN talk Buster?
You don't have to mime everything out while a piano player,
constantly playing an upright piano, is wheeled round behind you.
As a guy writes anything that happens, or might happen,
in flowery words, out on a big board to hold up infront of you....?
But as we go, watch out for that open man-hole and those 2 workmen
carrying that long plank, about to cross our path....
-So, your're in a 'fancy shmancy' hotel with a 'swell gal' ....
And you're peeling her a banana....
She eats the whole banana in one go...She's hungry, but kinda 'genteel' about it,
-And full of unspoken sexual promise....
Say, over there, isn't that Charlie?
At that restaurant with that....um ... '16 year old ' 'Starlet'...
(I thought she was 'Fatty's Dame'.)
What's he doing with those bread rolls stuck on his cutlery?
He's always playing with his food.
So, - where do you put the banana skin?...
In your pocket? No. - In her pocket? No .
Slip it down that old Dames dress, sat on the couch? Decorate her silly hat
with it ? No -Zip the empty skin back up and throw it away...
'What harm can it do? ' .....
All this talk of food's making me hungry,
fancy one of these unusually foamy pies Buster?
That only seem to be sold near early film lots....
No, there seems to be some sort of unnecessary fight developing,
good food wasted....
Oh, so you're only a porter at this hotel and the pretty girl's
a guest! Neat turn round!
-You're carrying her suitcases for her. Piled up, so you can't see where
you're going....
-If you damage her stuff... It's back on the streets for you...
Speaking of the street, step back from the kerb!
A trolley bus has jumped the tracks and is hurtling down the
highway! Is that Mabel tied to the roof! .."hi Mabel "....?
And those Cops from Keystone aren't gonna help!
If they werent trained from years on Vaudeville
someone could get hurt...
Anywho's.... Your dropping bits, trying to pick them back up,
other guests are piling their coats, bottles of booze,
trays of food, a live duck, on top.
A little dog is pulling at your turn-ups...
The angry Hotel Manager, who hates your guts, is watching...
- But look out Buster, there's the banana skin on the hotel floor!....
Phew, you stepped over it once!...
-You've gone right round the hotel revolving door,
-coming back towards the peel again !
Ooh, a series of beautifully cheoreographed pirohettes
later and still no trip... And then what happens?....
A second banana skin, no-one noticed? No.
Not the 'front of the building falls on you - but luckily
the open window saves you ' trick ? because you've done that
before..... No, not that! Tell me then......
Oh Buster! .... That's so subtle, uplifting, heart-wrenching,
poignant and Goddamn funny! But in spite of that, the French will still
love it! - I only hope, like so much early screen comedy, the delicate
nature of the film stock it's printed on, doesn't mean it melts in its can...
making it lost for future generations.....
Well, so long old pal...
Hey, watch out for that banana skin!
No, I'm not joshing, that real one! Early 20th Century streets are
genuinely covered in the remains of the cheap, healthy eating option
for the poor working classes...
And once the set -up of a banana skin has been laid, someone
must slip on it!
Oops, that looked genuinely painful, and actually not funny at all.....!