{{short description|American comedian}} {{about||the English rugby league footballer of the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s: "Chick" Johnson|Arthur Johnson (rugby league)}} {{Infobox person | name = Chic Johnson | image = Chic Johnson 1954.JPG | image_size = | caption = Johnson in 1954 | birth_name = Harold Ogden Johnson | birth_date = {{birth date|1891|04|15}} | birth_place = Chicago, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1962|02|26|1891|04|15}} | death_place = Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | occupation = Vaudevillian, comedian | years_active = 1930–1956 }}
'''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 ebullient personality.
==Background== Johnson was born of Swedish descent in Chicago to John M. and Matilda C. (née Carlson) Johnson.
==Career== Johnson was a ragtime pianist and met his partner Ole Olsen, a violinist, when they were hired by the same band.<ref>[http://www.americancentury.org/ag_hellzapoppin.pdf ''The Screamlined Revue! Hellzapoppin'' (The American Century Theater)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212155/http://www.americancentury.org/ag_hellzapoppin.pdf|date=March 3, 2016}}</ref> Following the breakup of the band, they started doing comedy and by 1918 were vaudeville headliners.<ref>{{cite web|title=Biographical Sketch" in "Ole Olsen papers, 1910–1999|publisher=Indiana Historical Society|date=2003-12-01|url=http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/ole-olsen-papers-1910-1999.pdf|accessdate=2012-11-05|archive-date=2012-08-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813032923/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/ole-olsen-papers-1910-1999.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Olsen and Johnson were given contracts by Warner Bros. in 1930 to appear as the comic relief in a number of musicals including ''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, resulting in the studio removing ''all'' the songs from ''Fifty Million Frenchmen''. To make up for the deleted scenes, new comedy scenes were filmed with Olsen and Johnson, who became the stars by default.<ref>Barrios, Richard. ''A Song in the Dark'', Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 331.</ref>
In 1936, they signed with Republic Pictures for two comedies, ''Country Gentlemen'' (1936) and ''All Over Town'' (1937). After this commitment they returned to the stage. In 1939 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. The show opened for the summer on June 19, 1939 and became such a hit that the run extended through the fall of 1940.<ref>Mulholland, Jim. ''The Abbott and Costello Book'', Film Fan Monthly, 1975, p. 41.</ref>
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.
''Hellzapoppin'' was transformed into a film released in 1941. Assisted by Marx Brothers screenwriter Nat Perrin, Olsen and Johnson used the film as an opportunity to satirize Hollywood as well as score some impressive riffs on conventional moviemaking. 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 Frankie Manning.
Pleased with the film's boxoffice performance, Universal signed the team for three more features. ''Crazy House'' (1943) had Olsen and Johnson running amok through the Universal studio and evacuating the staff. ''Ghost Catchers'' (1944) had Ole and Chic helping singer Gloria Jean make her Carnegie Hall debut despite strange happenings in a spooky old house. ''See My Lawyer'' (1945) was a patchwork of vaudeville acts, with Olsen and Johnson noticeably absent from most of the proceedings.
==Later years== Olsen and Johnson made their television debut in 1949 on ''Fireball Fun-For-All'', a summer replacement for ''Texaco Star Theater'' starring Milton Berle. They followed this with another variety show, ''All-Star Revue''.
In 1950 they returned to Broadway for one last Broadway revue, ''Pardon Our French'', but the show ran only three months. Olsen and Johnson continued to preside over rowdy revues into the 1950s, including a 1959 production at Flushing Meadows in Queens, NY, called "Hellz-a-Splashin': An Aqua-cade."<ref>Mark Fearnow, ''The American Stage and the Great Depression: A Cultural History of the Grotesque'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 140.</ref>
On June 21, 1953, they appeared together as the "mystery guests" on ''What's My Line?''. Every time the blindfolded panelists guessed the ''wrong'' comedy team, Chic Johnson glared at them with mock anger and silent epithets.
In the late 1950s illness forced Chic Johnson to retire from the hectic show-business lifestyle, while Ole Olsen continued to work as a solo performer. When Milton Berle was hosting NBC's ''Jackpot Bowling'' in 1960, Olsen was on hand to play straight to Berle's antics. This was actually a surprise for Olsen, as his live comic routine was interrupted by Ralph Edwards and a ''This Is Your Life'' tribute. The flabbergasted Olsen greeted family and friends, with frequent breaks for time-honored O & J sight gags. The final guest was Chic Johnson, who ran on-camera in his familiar stage costume and joyfully reunited with his old friend and partner.
Chic Johnson died of kidney failure on February 26, 1962, in Las Vegas.<ref>{{cite news |title=Vaudeville Funnyman Harold Chic Johnson Died Monday |newspaper=Lexington Dispatch |location=Lexington, North Carolina |date=February 27, 1962 |page=5}}</ref> 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== {{Portal|Biography}} * Olsen and Johnson
==References== {{reflist}}
==Other sources== *Maltin, Leonard. ''Movie Comedy Teams'' (New York: Signet, 1970, revised 1985)<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed -->
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{Find a Grave|1792}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Chic}} Category:1891 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Male actors from Chicago Category:American male comedians Category:American male musical theatre actors Category:American vaudeville performers Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:Deaths from kidney failure in Nevada Category:20th-century American male actors Category:Comedians from Chicago Category:20th-century American comedians Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American male singers