Background

John Sigvard Olsen was born on November 6, 1892, in Peru, Indiana, and reared in Wasbash, Illinois, the son of Gustave and Catherine Olsen.

Education

Olsen graduated from Northwestern University in 1912.

Career

Olsen’s partner for nearly fifty years was Harold Ogden ("Chic") Johnson (Mar. 5, 1891 - Feb. 26, 1962), comedian. 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; "I had to have him for a partner, " he stated. Both had hoped for careers as serious musicians (Olsen was inspired by the Czech violinist Jan Kubelik and Johnson by Ignace Paderewski), 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 (a move panned by John Mason Brown because they didn't "know when to let enough alone"). 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: Richard Watts, Jr. , of the Herald Tribune complained that Olsen and Johnson had "confused noise with humor"; John Anderson of the Journal called the show "vulgar and unaesthetic"; Brooks Atkinson of the Times saw it as "loud, low and funny. " 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), although the Times reviewer called it "mostly a jerky sequence of third-rate gags punctuated by gunfire. " Crazy House (1943), Ghost Catchers (1944), and See My Lawyer (1945) followed, all variations on "the same old pie-slinging and seltzer-squirting routines, " according to the Times. 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. Either their material was too "corny" for a sophisticated metropolitan audience (as Variety said) or, more likely, the shows suffered from the absence of visual, slapstick appeal. 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. Johnson married Catherine Creed in 1918. She was the woman who shouted for Oscar in Hellzapoppin and was the supervisor of props stored at the Johnson farm. Her act, Six Peaches and a Pair, played the Pantages circuit with Olsen and Johnson.

"Which one of you mugs is Johnson?" a running gag often repeated by the comedians, was adopted from early heckling. The two, in fact, were easily distinguishable; Olsen was tall and slim. 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 the more private of the two, preferring a quiet life with his family on a 1, 000-acre farm, Winter Garden, at Carmel, New York. Both were gregarious, and frequently appeared at Rotary, Lions, Elks, and Kiwanis luncheons or smokers. They welcomed hundreds of out-of-towners in their dressing rooms after performances.

Olsen was too restless to be hospitalized after a car accident in which he broke his right thigh (November 1950). Although he was temporarily replaced in Pardon Our French, he still hobbled through some scenes on crutches and "appeared" as an offstage voice. Olsen became interested in the Moral Rearmament Movement in the 1950's, prompted by his daughter's involvement, and appeared in Vanishing Island, sponsored by the group.

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. They had entertained three presidents - Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman - and had been received by Pope Pius XII. They were honorary members of dozens of fellowship clubs, and were made "Doctors of Pun and Hilarity" by the College of the City of New York (1939). Their motto, frequently restated, was "Only belly laughs count, " and they would accept as a compliment the criticism that they did not know the meaning of "subtle. " Johnson died in Las Vegas, Nevada; Olsen, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They are buried together in the Palm Mausoleum in Las Vegas.

Achievements

• Ole Olsen together with his partner, Chic Johnson, did popular at the time on Broadway show "Hellzapoppin" (1938). In 1941, Universal Pictures commited "Hellzapoppin" to film. Later they returned to Broadway with the productions of "Sons O' Fun" and "Pardoned my French. " Most famous films: Oh Sailor Behave! (1930); Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931); Gold Dust Gertie (1931); Country Gentlemen (1936); Cinema Circus (1936); All Over Town (1937); Boy Friend (1939); Crazy House (1943); Ghost Catchers (1944); See My Lawyer (1945); Johnny at the Fair (1947).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Country Gentlemen

    (After being run out of town after town for trying to sell...)

  • Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson Collection

    (Ole Olsen (1892-1963) and Chic Johnson (1891-1962) were, ...)

  • All Star Revue: The Olsen and Johnson Show (1952)

    (This early comedy program started off with a rotating cas...)

  • Olsen & Chic Johnson - Fireball Fun-For-All (1953) / Chopsticks (1950)

    (Remarkably early slap-stick TV show starring the wild men...)

Views

Quotations: May you live as long as you laugh, and laugh as long as you live.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Olsen was inspired by the Czech violinist Jan Kubelik.

Connections

Olsen was married twice: to Lillian Olsen in 1910, and after divorce to Eileen O'Dare in 1913. With the first wife they had three children.

Father:

Gustave Olsen

Mother:

Catherine Olsen

Wife:

Eileen (O'Dare) Olsen

Wife:

Lillian Olsen

Daughter:

Joy Pendergraft

Daughter:

Moya Lear

Partner:

Harold Ogden ("Chic") Johnson

Son:

J.C. Olsen