by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Not altogether interested in comedy, Biograph's director-general D.W.Griffith usually assigned the direction of the studio's lighter fare to his trusted assistant Frank Powell. In the Biograph half-reeler His New Lid, the hero shows off his new hat to his friends at the seashore. The hat is blown off his head and into the water. Seeing the hat bobbing up and down on the waves, the hero's friends assume that the poor fellow has drowned. As they tearfully mourn their loss, the hatless protagonist shows up asking what all the crying is about. Instead of throttling the fellow for putting them through so much anguish, everyone starts laughing hysterically.
