The Johnny and Penny Olson papers document not only the Olsons' work in show business but also the development and expansion of 20th century broadcasting as reflected in their careers. Listener letters and response cards provide insight into the relationship between broadcasting and its audience in the Depression-era Midwest. The Olsons' move to New York City coincided with the decline of live radio programming and the emergence of television as the dominant medium in the latter half of the 20th century which is reflected in materials from both the radio and television versions of their most popular shows. The collection also includes gag material, humorous anecdotes, and quiz questions that helped define popular humor and societal norms in 1940s-1950s America. The collection is organized into seven series: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES, PUBLICITY, VISUAL MATERIALS, FILM AND VIDEO, and AUDIO RECORDINGS.
The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL series includes autobiographical writings, reminiscences, humorous reflections, and anecdotes concerning the Olsons' long and varied careers in broadcasting and illustrate the range and scope of their personal and professional activities. Typed transcripts of taped interviews further elaborate upon their experiences in radio and television. Other items include Johnny Olson's 1927 diary and material from his student days at Windom High School, such as dance cards and class invitations as well as a copy of Johnny Olson's 1928 yearbook The Cricket. The series concludes with family materials collected by Johnny Olson. These notes, combined with the obituaries of some of his siblings, provide additional biographical detail.
The CORRESPONDENCE series is further divided into Personal Correspondence, Audience Letters, and Professional Correspondence, each of which is arranged chronologically. There are relatively few personal letters in the collection; however, some of the most notable are from Johnny's mother seeking financial assistance during the Depression and a letter from his sister during her stay in a sanatorium in Texas. There are a substantial number of Audience Letters from Johnny Olson's tenure at WTMJ-Milwaukee (1933-1944), including letters requesting specific musical selections or formats, responses to on-air statements, letters that either support or criticize various sponsors' products, and opinions regarding the amount of show time devoted to promotion. Many of these letters reveal an emotional connection between Olson and his fans. Sometimes this relationship is misconstrued, as was the case with a correspondent whose missives Johnny referred to as “screwball letters.” The Professional Correspondence consists primarily of letters from show sponsors and/or advertising agencies, delineating the relationship between on-air personalities and their financial supporters. Also included are letters from vendors seeking to establish a business relationship with the Olsons; a letter and poem written by Mark Goodson, the producer of The Price Is Right, posthumously acknowledging Johnny's contributions for the show's fifteenth anniversary; and correspondence from amateur gag writers whose work Olson used while at WTMJ.
The PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES series is divided into six subseries: General, Radio Shows, Television Shows, Music, Film/Theatre, and Writings.
1) General: This subseries includes material relating to the professional lives of Johnny and Penny Olson. Of particular interest is the collection of gag material, humorous anecdotes, and quiz questions, and the sources of his humor, clippings from newspapers and magazines that provided the inspiration for subsequent material. The subseries contains a number of radio scripts, show proposals, and collected television anecdotes, several specifically related to Jack Paar and his promotion of various products. Since the collection contains little information on Johnny's financial compensation or the production costs of his shows, a selection of weekly expense reports (1947, 1957, 1980, and 1982) have been retained. Also included are details on other professional activities pursued by the Olsons including voice-over work, commercial endorsements, and investment opportunities.
2) Radio Shows: This subseries includes information on twenty-nine radio shows, arranged alphabetically. The amount of material for each show varies. For some (The Falstaff Show, The Mary Small Show) there is as little as a few pages of continuity and some ephemera--flyers, tickets, etc.--while other programs (Johnnie Olson and His Eight Brothers Rhythm Rascals, Rumpus Room, Ladies Be Seated, and Johnny Olsen's Luncheon Club) are well documented with scripts, gag material, and lists of contests/routines. Of particular interest are the programs produced by WTMJ-Milwaukee from 1936 to 1941 and those shows featured on WJZ-New York in 1944 that reflect the impact of World War II on network programming.
3) Television Shows: Arranged alphabetically by show title, this subseries contains scripts from a variety of television productions including Rumpus Room and Ladies Be Seated. Johnny's career as a prime-time announcer is documented in scripts from The Jackie Gleason Show and The Dom Deluise Show, which highlight the comedic response to the social and political turmoil of the 1960s. During this decade Jackie Gleason often re-visited his beloved character, Ralph Kramden, and the scripts include skits for “The Honeymooners.” Materials related to a Mrs. America Pageant hosted by Johnny in 1963 include contestant descriptions and interview questions revealing much about pre-feminist gender-role expectations. Although Johnny Olson served as announcer for a number of daytime game shows in the 1970s, the collection contains scripts only for The Price Is Right.
4) Music: Johnny Olson, who wrote parody lyrics to popular songs during his radio career, became increasingly interested in composing music, primarily hymns, in the 1950s. Penny shared her husband's enthusiasm and recorded a selection of gospel tunes released on Word Records. The collection includes examples of efforts to secure the rights to record previously published material, contracts and correspondence with Greenbriar Music Publishing and Word Records, lyrics, and sheet music for Olson compositions. Also included is a selection of sheet music by other composers, often with notations by Johnny, and a series of “Tune-Dex” cards produced by ASCAP, collected and saved by the Olsons from their days in radio.
5) Film/Theatre: Unlike radio and television, Johnny Olson expended relatively little effort in this arena. The collection includes a promotional poster from the 1961 film The Sin of Mona Kent and a script, pages of direction and production notes, and two playbills from his work in 1972 on the play The Selling of the President.
6) Writings: While an announcer at WTMJ-Milwaukee, Olson also wrote a newspaper column, “Johnny Olson's Jottings,” featuring amusing anecdotes and jokes presented in an engaging first-person narrative. The column appeared in a number of newspapers throughout Wisconsin.
As seasoned performers, Johnny and Penny Olson were aware of the importance of keeping their names in the public eye. This is documented in the PUBLICITY series. Efforts to secure an audience meant making personal appearances at food fairs, conventions, pageants, etc., and these trips often culminated in proclamations and certificates from local dignitaries. Chief among these is a hand-painted certificate from the Merchants Committee of the Flatbush Chamber of Commerce listing Johnny as “Favorite Woman's Show Master of Ceremonies.” The Olsons also generated a number of press releases, often accompanied by a photograph, to obtain further publicity.
Clippings in this series, arranged chronologically, cover the personal and professional lives of both Johnny and Penny, occasionally providing verification for events detailed in their reminiscences. The earliest clippings concern appearances by Johnny Olson in school plays and community theater productions. There is only one brief mention of Olson's time in South Dakota. His activities in Wisconsin, especially the period from 1931 to 1941, are well documented. Clippings during this time highlight both career news (Johnny's participation in local events, his move from WIBA to WTMJ and then to KMPC, critical reception of his shows, etc.) and personal history (stories on his start in radio, family response to his career, etc.) Unfortunately, there are no clippings concerning the Olsons' efforts during the war years; the publicity files resume in 1947 after they have relocated to New York City. A number of articles chronicle their activities in the 1950s, including their charitable work for polio victims. The clippings often provide the only clue to Johnny's myriad professional commitments. By 1959, features on Johnny's ability to “warm-up” an audience begin to appear. The collection contains little published information from late 1960s or 1970s with only one substantial article on Johnny's tenure at The Price Is Right.
A number of feature articles were written about the Olsons between 1949 and 1960, often accompanied by elaborate photo documentation. These have been organized individually by date. These stories provide a wealth of information about the Olsons' personal lives, particularly their homes in Connecticut and Wisconsin, and provide a glowing picture of Johnny and Penny's married life together.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series is divided by format and then is in order reflecting the arrangement of the manuscript portion of the collection: Biographical Materials, Professional Activities, and Publicity. Digital prints of the Negatives and the Transparencies are filed with the vintage Photographs.
1) Biographical Materials: The images in this group include a wedding portrait of Johnny Olson's parents, informal snapshots of his childhood in Windom, Minnesota, and several school portraits. Also included are a number of formal images of theatrical productions in which Johnny participated during his years in Windom and two images from his career in Mitchell, South Dakota. The group also includes a wedding portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Powers (Penny's parents), images of her formative years in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, and photographs of family members (sisters, aunts, uncles, etc.). More extensive documentation exists for Johnny and Penny's married life together, including images of the two of them at various banquets/events, photographs of their homes in Connecticut and Wisconsin, and a representative sample of images of their beloved poodles.
2) Professional Activities: Given the extensive photographic documentation of Johnny and Penny's broadcasting careers, the group is further divided into three additional categories: General, Radio, and Television.
a) General: This category consists of images from Johnny and Penny's professional lives. Included are portraits of musicians (Bob Crosby, Lena Horne, Lionel Hampton, and Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, among others) and celebrities (including Sally Rand and Roy Rogers) with personal inscriptions to the Olsons. In addition, there are images of Johnny with such famous personalities as the Andrews Sisters, Gene Autry, Count Basie, Woody Herman, and Roddy McDowall.
The category also includes images of Johnny and Penny with various products and sponsors. From his early days at WTMJ-Milwaukee, there are images of Johnny promoting Eight Brothers Tobacco and several photographs documenting his promotion of Oshkosh B'Gosh overalls. Also included are images from his later career and relationship with such sponsors as Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, Eveready Batteries, Toni Home Permanents, and Philip Morris. The category also contains photographs of the Olsons participating in remote radio broadcasts.
b) Radio Shows: The images in this category are arranged alphabetically by show title and feature a variety of images from Johnny and Penny's long career in radio broadcasting. This category is especially rich in images of their tenure at WTMJ-Milwaukee during World War II including photographs of war bond drives and other charity efforts. Other images in this category include photographs made during the Olsons' popular program Rumpus Room, showing men in uniform enthusiastically dancing with women in the audience. This category also contains photographs from Johnny's later career in network radio, including his work on such shows as Ladies Be Seated and Johnny Olsen's Luncheon Club.
c) Television Shows: Arranged alphabetically by show title, this category contains images from a variety of television productions including material on Rumpus Room. Particularly well documented is the audience participation show, Ladies Be Seated, which features images of various contests, gags, and the Olsons' interactions with audience members. Additional images in this category document Johnny's career as a prime-time announcer, and include one photograph of him with Jackie Gleason and a number of images from such 1970s game shows as Match Game, Concentration, and The Price Is Right.
3) Publicity: This group documents the Olsons' efforts to keep their names in the public eye. Included are posed promotional studio portraits from throughout the career of both Johnny and Penny as well as images from personal appearances at food fairs, conventions, pageants, resorts, etc. Throughout their career, the Olsons generated a number of press releases, which were often accompanied by a “whimsical” photograph. For example, after the 1952 presidential election which carried Dwight D. Eisenhower into the Oval Office, Penny took the opportunity to issue a press release describing how, as a promise to her father, she refused to cut her hair until a Republican candidate was elected president. Included are images depicting Penny's tresses, a photograph of Johnny jokingly posed with a large pair of scissors, and an image of contestants in a “long-hair” contest.
Additional publicity images document the 1970 Cottonwood County Centennial which honored both Johnny Olson and television star William Windom. The Olsons were the subject of a number of feature magazine articles during 1949 and 1960. Included are photographs from two such features, organized individually by date at the end of this group.
The FILM AND VIDEO series documents the careers and personal lives of Johnny and Penny Olson. Included are episodes of Kids and Company and Rumpus Room, which aired on the DuMont Television Network; television commercials; segments from Name That Tune, Play Your Hunch, and The Price is Right (mainly Johnny Olson's showcases from the show); and home movies with footage of Johnny and Penny's travels, home, and work appearances. Also included is the Mrs. America 1956 contest, an outtake from The Sin of Mona Kent, and Zhivago: Behind the Camera with David Lean.
The AUDIO RECORDINGS series documents the careers of Johnny and Penny Olson. The recordings are arranged by format with audio tapes listed first and then audio discs. Included are episodes and outtakes from the Johnny Olson Show, Rumpus Room, and The Price is Right. Also contains commercials such as sponsors Penn Tobacco. Penny Olson recordings include “Daily Prayers,” and of Olson singing hymns.
