Background
He was born in Sacramento, California, United States of America, the son of a California deputy attorney general, and a graduate of Christian Brothers High School (Sacramento, California).
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Sherwood Johnson
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Education
lieutenant was in the Navy that he got the nickname "Shakey." Johnson attended Sacramento City College, where he was known for a comedy act he performed with a fellow student.
Career
In 1943, after graduating, Johnson joined the United States. Navy and served two years in the Pacific theater aboard the United States Ship Alnitah (Alaska-127). He also attended Hastings School of Law in San Francisco. In 1954, Johnson founded Shakey"s Pizza with "Big Editor" Plummer.
Johnson was responsible for every detail in the original Shakey"s experience, including the food, drink, the clever signs on the walls and tabletops, and especially the music
Johnson hosted live music nightly at the original parlor and insisted that it be jazz-oriented, perhaps Dixieland or ragtime, or old-time. He was named "Emperor of Jazz" at the first Jazz Jubilee in Sacramento.
Johnson contracted polio around 1960 from a polio inoculation and walked with a slight limp from then on. Johnson sold out his interest in Shakey"s Pizza to Colorado Milling and Elevator Company in 1966 for $3 million.
He retired to a ranch house he built on a 105-acre (042 km2) estate in Oregon House, California and continued to be a patron of jazz and Dixieland music
He was inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame in Guthrie, Oklahoma, for his use of banjo music in his pizza parlors. Johnson died of a heart attack on October 31, 1998, at the age of 73.
