Background
Johnson was born on March 15, 1891, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of John M. and Matilda C. (née Carlson) Johnson.
(Winnie Lightner strikes it rich in a gold mine of gags in...)
Winnie Lightner strikes it rich in a gold mine of gags in this racy pre-Code comedy costarring the team of Olsen and Johnson. A brassy gold digger who loves ’em and leaves ’em; Gertie Dale (Lightner) drops by the office of ex-husbands Elmer (Chic Johnson) and George (Ole Olsen) when they’re late with their alimony checks. Recently re-wed to ensure their employment; the boys work for John Aberdeen Arnold (Claude Gillingwater); a lifelong bachelor who insists his employees be married and doesn’t believe in divorce. Refusing to leave empty-handed; Gertie vamps Arnold into taking them all on a cruise; where she plans to get what they owe her and more when she marries the smitten old man.
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(Ole Olsen (1892-1963) and Chic Johnson (1891-1962) were, ...)
Ole Olsen (1892-1963) and Chic Johnson (1891-1962) were, along with the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges, among the most popular comedy teams in vaudeville. Their free-wheeling, improvisational play Hellzapoppin', which was touted as "never the same show twice," became an immediate sensation when it opened on Broadway in 1938 and ran for over 1400 performances. The film version followed in 1941, after which the duo made a few more movies (including Crazy House and Ghost Catchers) while returning to the stage and appearing on television periodically. All-Star Review: In this 1951 episode from the popular NBC series, which featured rotating hosts, "The Olsen & Johnson Show" takes center stage, with the pair appearing in a number of hilarious sketches, including a Western spoof, a version of "Marie Antoinette" that turns the French Revolution upside down and a fast-paced satire of Shakespearean theater in which the actors quote dialogue from any number of classic plays at random. The Milton Berle Show - Hellzapoppin' '56: In a 1956 episode of his legendary comedy series, Milton Berle celebrates Olsen & Johnson's 35th anniversary in show business with a special tribute to Hellzapoppin', complete with dancing girls, rubber chickens, seltzer bottles and pies in the face - all before the first commercial break! There's also a "tribute" to Noel Coward (involving a gorilla!) in the Hellzapoppin' spirit that "anything can happen.. and probably will!" A bonus is the original commercials, most notably a Kukla, Fran and Ollie ad promoting the "new" Whirlpool washing machines. Berle ultimately dedicates the show to Olsen & Johnson, calling them "two of the funniest men ever to give laughs to our great country."
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(The melodies of You’ve Got That Thing and You Do Somethin...)
The melodies of You’ve Got That Thing and You Do Something to Me lace the soundtrack; but Hollywood did something to the screen version of the Cole Porter musical Fifty Million Frenchmen: It dropped the songs! At the time; moviegoers frowned on song-and-dance vehicles; so the studio-tinkered result was a frantic contraption of nonstop jokes; sassy pre-Code double entendres and the antics of vaudeville/radio stars Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The slender plot concerns a $50;000 bet that lovestruck American-in-Paris Jack Forbes (William Gaxton repeating his Broadway role) can woo and wed the alluring LuLu (Claudia Dell) without his wealth. But the sidebars are more fun: Helen Broderick as a randy tourist who wants to be “insulted;” the mischief of Olsen and Johnson (leading the Paris police on a madcap Keystone Kops-like finale chase) and a briefly seen Bela Lugosi as a magician mystic denied his chance to perform. Not to worry for Bela: Fifty Million Frenchmen shared its 1931 opening day with another opus called Dracula; and the rest is history. Vive le Hollywood! When sold by Amazon.com, this product will be manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Million-Frenchmen-William-Gaxton/dp/B019RGCWBC?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B019RGCWBC
(Based on the hit Broadway play, this wacky, sight-gag fil...)
Based on the hit Broadway play, this wacky, sight-gag filled romp stars Olsen and Johnson as a pair of actors whose attempt to stage a musical at a swanky estate is hampered when the show's producer begins to woo one of the venue's upscale residents, the female lead is mistaken for a wealthy femme fatale, and the whole production arouses the suspicion of a bumbling private eye. With Martha Raye, Robert Paige, Elisha Cook, Jr., and Shemp Howard. 84 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English.
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(Based on the farcical stage play written by Pulitzer Priz...)
Based on the farcical stage play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning* writer Elmer Rice, Oh, Sailor, Behave! is a movie musical with a split personality. Nanette Dodge (Irene Delroy) falls for newspaper reporter Charlie Carroll (Charles King), who is on assignment in Venice to land an interview with Romanian General Skulany (Noah Beery). Our couple is split apart by a pair of storylines – Nanette tries to woo a Russian prince (Lowell Sherman) who is blackmailing her sister, while Charlie, following a lead to the general, finds himself romantically involved with Kunegundi (Vivien Oakland), “the general’s favorite.” In an unrelated, slapstick plotline a pair of American sailors (Olsen & Johnson) are embroiled in trouble while attempting to track down the one-legged thief who robbed the navy storehouse in Venice. Directed by the accomplished Archie Mayo (The Petrified Forest, The Adventures of Marco Polo and Angel on My Shoulder), the film is famous for introducing the comedic team of Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson (Hellzapoppin’) on the big screen. *1929 for Street Scene When sold by Amazon.com, this product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
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(Remarkably early slap-stick TV show starring the wild men...)
Remarkably early slap-stick TV show starring the wild men, Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. Bonus, ""Chopsticks"" TV talent show featuring an adolescent Billy Preston on the piano.
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Johnson was born on March 15, 1891, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of John M. and Matilda C. (née Carlson) Johnson.
Johnson studied classical piano at the Chicago Music College but dropped out to work at area vaudeville houses as a ragtime pianist. He later attended Northwestern University.
Johnson broke into show business as a ragtime pianist and met his partner Ole Olsen, a violinist, when they were hired by the same band. There are several versions of the story of their meeting (1914); probably it occurred in the office of a musical publisher in Chicago while both were looking for new material. Olsen was the violin-playing member of the College Four quartet, then in need of a piano player. He and Johnson recognized each other's "genius" immediately (as they recalled); Johnson, a ragtime piano player who soon joined the quartet, displayed "the most powerful right hand" Olsen had "ever heard on a piano. " Johnson was impressed by Olsen's yellow high-button shoes and his ability to imitate a busy signal on the telephone. Both had hoped for careers as serious musicians, but they developed an act featuring violin, piano, ventriloquism, and harmony. Early hecklers were never ignored; interruptions were incorporated into the act.
Their slow acceptance in vaudeville encouraged Olsen and Johnson to crash "Mike Fritzel's Frolics, " a floorshow at a Chicago club. Their act was popular, and gained momentum at the Majestic Theater in Milwaukee; the team, billed as Two Likeable Lads Loaded with Laughs, subsequently played the Keith, Pantages, and Orpheum circuits. In 1925 they toured England and Australia in Tip Toes and Tell Me More, and the next year they starred in Monkey Business in Los Angeles, the first revue of their own. Although they had engagements at the Palace in New York City, they confined their vaudeville tours to the West because Orpheum acts seeking to become established in the East had to take a cut in salary.
In 1933 Olsen and Johnson made their Broadway debut, replacing Jack Haley and Sid Silvers, in the musical comedy Take a Chance. They bought 50 percent of the stock in the show and toured with it successfully. When the large vaudeville circuits began to disintegrate, Olsen and Johnson started one-night stands throughout the South and parts of the West. Their Surprise Party on tour provided the basic concept for their most famous show, Hellzapoppin. At Buckeye, Arizona, Olsen and Johnson came upon the name Helzapoppin, used for the Fiesta del Sol, and adopted the name for a review made up of material from the "unit" shows they had opened in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Denver, Colorado. With Lee Shubert's backing, sets and costumes from previous musicals, and a budget estimated between $15, 000 and $25, 000, the show opened at the Forty-sixth Street Theater in New York City on September 22, 1938. The critics, used to more sophisticated fare, were not enthusiastic, but the public, prompted by Walter Winchell's enthusiastic plugging of the show, lined up at the box office. Sellout crowds forced a move first to the Winter Garden Theater, then to the Majestic. The production convulsed audiences with its zany antics. Some of the jokes were directed at the audience; stagehands would force air under the skirts of women seated in the orchestra; a plant delivered during the performance grew into a tree by the finale; tickets for other shows were hawked; shots were fired from offstage. Hellzapoppin's first anniversary found former Governor Al Smith dancing in the aisles, and the show was declared practically "a national institution" by the Brooklyn Eagle. It ran for more than 1, 400 performances before closing on December 17, 1941. The show returned the partners an enormous profit.
Hellzapoppin's success prompted imitations such as Hellzafire (1940, enjoined from continuing when Olsen and Johnson sued the owners and principals, preventing the use of such a similar title) and further Olsen and Johnson productions: Sons o'Fun (1941), Laffing Room Only (1944), Funzapoppin (1949), and Pardon Our French (1950). A proposed skating show had to be canceled, but in 1959 Hellzasplashin, an aquatic variation, opened at Flushing Meadow Park, New York City. Hellzapoppin became a successful movie (1941). Actually, Olsen and Johnson had begun their movie careers before Hellzapoppin fame; they had appeared in Oh Sailor Behave! (1930), Gold Dust Gertie (1931), and Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), among other films. During the late 1930's they began their radio career, introduced by crooner Rudy Vallee, and presented "Comedy News" on WABC, but they achieved only limited success. Olsen and Johnson realized that television was the "big theatrical business of the future, " and were delighted to be signed by NBC as a summer replacement for Milton Berle (1949). They appeared in "Fireball Fun for All" (1949-1950) and "All Star Revue" (1951). Although their work served as an inspiration for such later shows as "Laugh In, " the team's spontaneity was restricted by the confinement of television camera positions.
In 1956 Olsen and Johnson resumed their nightclub career at the Latin Quarter in New York City. They could still provoke laughs, but the novelty was gone. They had also appeared at the Canadian National Exhibition in Ottawa and Toronto, drawing record crowds in 1948 and 1949. Their gross was $400, 000 weekly in 1949. Olsen and Johnson's last appearance as a team was in Hellzasplashin. After Johnson's death Olsen recalled that they had had disagreements but no real fights. Each supplied something the other lacked.
Johnson died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 26, 1962. He is buried together with Olsen in the Palm Mausoleum in Las Vegas.
(The melodies of You’ve Got That Thing and You Do Somethin...)
(Based on the hit Broadway play, this wacky, sight-gag fil...)
(Ole Olsen (1892-1963) and Chic Johnson (1891-1962) were, ...)
(Based on the farcical stage play written by Pulitzer Priz...)
(Winnie Lightner strikes it rich in a gold mine of gags in...)
(Remarkably early slap-stick TV show starring the wild men...)
Johnson was honorary member of dozens of fellowship clubs, and was made "Doctors of Pun and Hilarity" by the College of the City of New York (1939).
Johnson had thinning red hair, and was short and stocky. He liked to hunt and fish, and although he had an "oxlike" endurance, was often concerned with his health. He was private, preferring a quiet life with his family on a 1, 000-acre farm, Winter Garden, at Carmel, New York.
Johnson married Catherine Creed in 1918; they had two daughters. She was the woman who shouted for Oscar in Hellzapoppin and was the supervisor of props stored at the Johnson farm.