Chic Johnson
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Chic Johnson was the barrel-chested half of the Swedish-American comedy team of Olsen and Johnson, known for his strangely infectious, high-pitched laugh.
Born Harold Ogden Johnson in Chicago, Illinois on March 15, 1891, 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.
O&J were given contracts by Warner Bros. in 1930 to appear as the comic relief in a number of musicals such as Oh, Sailor Behave (1930), Gold Dust Gertie (1931) and a lavish Technicolor version of Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931). Unfortunately, 1931 saw a backlash against musicals, and their last two pictures were released sans music. It didn't help. Let go from their contract, the team returned to the stage.
Their greatest triumph was as the stars and producers of Hellzapoppin', a zany Broadway revue, which opened at the 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.
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.
In 1938 Olsen and Johnson produced the Broadway revue Streets of Paris, which starred Bobby Clark and introduced the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to Broadway audiences.
Hellzapoppin’ was translated into a film that was released in 1941. Abetted by veteran Marx Brothers screenwriter Nat Perrin, Olsen and Johnson used the film as an opportunity to satirize Hollywood as well as score some impressive riffs off filmmaking convention. The picture, a movie within a movie within a play within a movie, foreshadowed a style of comedy that would later find its way into the films of Mel Brooks, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and TV’s Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film is also known for having what many consider to be the finest example of swing dancing ever put on film, performed by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (here billed as the Harlem Congeroo Dancers) with the great Frankie Manning.
Although the film is tied up in litigation, bootleg copies in VHS are openly sold on the Internet.
Their career in Hollywood was very much a hit-and-miss affair. Hellzapoppin,’ following their string of earlier failures, was then followed in turn by the much less inspired Crazy House, which was then followed by the extremely wild Ghost Catchers. Full of trick photography and guest stars, one of the film’s more inspired gags occurs during a séance, in which prim and proper Gloria Jean gets a surprise when the spirit of a deceased playboy enters the room—"He... he pinched me!"
After their final starring movie, See My Lawyer, 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 semiretirement. With the advent of Las Vegas as a gambling and entertainment mecca, the team was able to find steady work until Johnson became too sick to perform.
Chic Johnson died of kidney failure on February 28, 1962. He was buried and eventually joined in an adjacent plot by Ole Olsen in Palm Desert Memorial cemetery in Las Vegas.
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