Chic Johnson

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For the English rugby league footballer of the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s: "Chick" Johnson, see Arthur Johnson (rugby league).
Chic Johnson
Las Vegas, Nevada
, U.S.
Occupation(s)Vaudevillian, comedian
Years active1930–1956

Harold Ogden "Chic" Johnson (March 15, 1891 – February 26, 1962) was the barrel-chested half of the American comedy team of Olsen and Johnson, known for his strangely infectious, high-pitched "Woo-Woo" laugh.[1]

Background

Johnson was born of Swedish descent in Chicago to John M. and Matilda C. (née Carlson) Johnson.

Career

Johnson studied classical piano at the Chicago Musical College. He dropped out to support himself as a ragtime pianist in various Chicago-area cabarets and vaudeville houses. He broke into show business as a ragtime pianist and met his partner Ole Olsen, a violinist, when they were hired by the same band. Following the breakup of the band, they started doing comedy and by 1918 were vaudeville headliners.[2]

O&J were given contracts by

Bobby Clark and introduced the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to Broadway audiences.[citation needed
]

Their greatest triumph was as the stars and producers of

46th Street Theater on September 22, 1938, and ran for a record 1,404 performances. Full of outrageous gags played on stooges planted in the audience (one winner of a so-called raffle had a block of ice placed in his lap) as well as indignities inflicted on actual paying customers, it became a smash hit despite a lukewarm critical reception, thanks in part to the influence of newspaper columnist and radio personality Walter Winchell.[3]

Hellzapoppin was followed by two other Broadway hits. Sons o' Fun opened December 1, 1941, just six days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and ran an impressive 742 performances. Laffing Room Only opened on December 23, 1944, and ran a respectable 232.

Hellzapoppin was translated into a

swing dancing ever put on film, performed by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (here billed as the Harlem Congeroo Dancers) with Frankie Manning. Although the film is tied up in litigation, a Region 2 DVD has been released. Olsen and Johnson's Hollywood career was very much a hit-and-miss affair. Hellzapoppin', following their string of earlier failures, was then followed in turn by Crazy House, which was then followed by the slick Ghost Catchers, with most of the wildness confined to the comics' nightclub scenes.[citation needed
]

Later years

After their final starring movie, See My Lawyer, was released in 1945, the team tried but failed to make its mark on television with Fireball Fun-For-All, a summer replacement for Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle. They attempted to make a comeback with one last Broadway revue, Pardon Our French, but the show failed to catch fire and they entered semi-retirement.

With the advent of Las Vegas as a gambling and entertainment mecca, the team was able to find steady work until Johnson became too ill to perform. Chic Johnson died of kidney failure on February 26, 1962, in Las Vegas.[4] He was buried on March 1, 1962, and eventually joined in an adjacent plot by Ole Olsen in Palm Desert Memorial cemetery in Las Vegas.

See also

References

  1. ^ Olsen and Johnson, The Zaniest of the Zanies
  2. ^ "Biographical Sketch" in "Ole Olsen papers, 1910–1999" (PDF). Indiana Historical Society. 2003-12-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2012-11-05.
  3. ^ The Screamlined Revue! Hellzapoppin (The American Century Theater) Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Lexington Dispatch. Lexington, North Carolina
    . February 27, 1962. p. 5.

Other sources

  • Maltin, Leonard. Movie Comedy Teams (New York: Signet, 1970, revised 1985)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chic Johnson.
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