Mashood Olabisi Ajala

In 1952 while on his lecture tour along chicago and Los angeles route Ajala was refused a room in a whites-only YCMA, Ajala went berserk and was sebsequently jailed for disturbing the peace in the neighbourhood.[5] His marital life featured different women from different parts of the world. In 1953, a Chicago nurse named Myrtle Basset filed a paternity suit against Ajala for denying being the father of ‘their son’ which she claimed Ajala himself named Oladipupo and also signed his birth certificate.Despite the lawsuit, Ajala held firmly to his ground denying being the father of the boy. Ajala proposed a DNA test but the nurse was reluctant at first and when she eventually agreed to surrender the baby for the test, Ajala disappeared into the thin air which made the court ruled against him. In March, 1953, a domestic court mandated Ajala to pay $10 per week for the upkeep of Oladipupo, also named André.[6]Ajala was also jailed by the Beverly hills, California police for theft and felony.[7] Ajala was ordered by the American authorities to be deported to England from Ellis Island, New York but Ajala resisted while awaiting deportation at the Terminal Island in Los Angeles after he was given a one-year suspended jail term, Ajala climbed an 80-foot radio tower and threatened to kill himself . From atop the tower, Ajala screamed that he ‘would rather leap to my death’ than be deported. He was on the tower for almost 24 hours while the immigration authorities pleaded with him. Finally, Ajala fell to the ground from a height of 15 feet. He was examined by doctor at the island’s hospital and they said all he suffered was just a sprained back. Immigration authorities said Ajala made the death threat because he feared what they called ‘tribal execution’ if he was packaged back to Nigeria.

Ajala featured in White Witch Doctor, produced by the 20th Century Fox movie studio, with a payment of $300 per week. He played the role of “Ola”, a companion of “Loni”, a famous African hunter, played by Robert Mitchum. In 1955, he signed a movie contract with the Eagle Lion’s studio of Hollywood. He had several television appearances in impeccable African traditional attire. After his deportation from the United States, Ajala proceeded to Canada and spent nine months perfecting his acting skills. It was while he was there that he starred in the stage play Lost In The Stars[8]