Martin and Osa Johnson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the rugby player Martin Johnson see Martin Johnson.
Martin Johnson (October 9, 1884 – January 13, 1937) and his wife Osa Johnson (née Leighty, March 14, 1894 – January 7, 1953) were adventurers from Kansas, United States.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
In the first half of the 20th century an American couple, Martin and Osa Johnson, from Lincoln and Chanute, Kansas respectively, captured the public's imagination through their films and books of adventure in exotic, far-away lands. Photographers, explorers, marketers, naturalists and authors, Martin and Osa studied the wildlife and peoples of East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo. They explored then unknown lands and brought back knowledge of civilizations thousands of miles away through their films, writings and lectures.
Martin Johnson took part as a crew member and cook in Jack London's 1907–1909 voyage across the Pacific aboard the Snark. After that, he started a traveling road show that toured the United States displaying photographs and artifacts collected on the voyage. He met Osa Leighty while passing through her hometown of Chanute, Kansas, and they married in 1910. After seven years, Martin and Osa raised enough money to depart for new adventures, going first to the Solomon Islands, and later Borneo, and still later Africa.
Martin Johnson died in the crash of a Western Air Express commercial flight near Burbank, California in 1937, while Osa was severely injured but recovered. By October 1937, the New York Times was publishing dispatches of Osa's latest trip to Africa, in which she described lifestyles and practices of the Masai and other tribes.
She died in New York City of a heart attack in 1953.
[edit] Store
American Eagle Outfitters plans on opening a new line of stores named after Martin and Osa Johnson, called Martin and Osa. 5 stores are planned to open by the end of 2006 in select malls, with 10 to 15 more stores planned to open in 2007. The first store is currently scheduled to open at Tysons Corner, Virginia in early September,2006.
Storefronts will have wide entrances, but no windows. Rather than having windows to see inside, the exterior will be covered with wood and a strip of opaque blue glass. Inside the stores will have a natural materials theme, with plenty of wood and stone. The archetypal customer is a 30-year-old man or woman, but the new brand expects to attract people aged 25 to 40. The brand's tag line will be "Refresh, Replenish, Repeat" with a line underneath that reads "Please dispose of your old clothes properly." The message is meant to encourage buyers to bring in their old clothes to Martin and Osa which will redistribute them to charities.
[edit] The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum
The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum is located in Osa's hometown of Chanute, Kansas. Formed in 1961 to preserve the Johnsons' achievements and to encourage further research into their fields of study, the Safari Museum (as it was originally named) has grown and flourished. The museum started with a core collection of the Johnsons' films, photographs, manuscripts, articles, books, and personal belongings donated by Osa's mother. The museum shares the beautiful old railroad depot with the Chanute Library.
[edit] Selected filmography
- Cannibals of the South Seas (1912)
- Jack London's Adventures of the South Seas (1913)
- Among the Cannibal Isles of the South Seas (1918)
- Jungle Adventures (1921)
- Simba: King of the Beasts (1928)
- Wonders of the Congo (1931)
- Congorilla (1932)
- Wings Over Africa (1934)
- Baboona (1935)
- Children of Africa (1937)
- Jungle Depths of Borneo (1937)
- Borneo (1937)
- Jungles Calling (1937)
- I Married Adventure (1940)
- African Paradise (1941)
- Tulagi and the Solomons (1943)
- Big Game Hunt (1950s), on TV
