WEBVTT

1
00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:29.920
This bucolic scene, Nick Johnson, take a powder.

2
00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:37.440
That folks was is Chick Johnson of Olsen and Johnson's Nut Factory and this was is his Connecticut farm.

3
00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:43.760
The zany costar of the laugh hits Hell's a Poppin' and Laughin' Room Only has decided to call up a pickerel.

4
00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:52.280
Back at the old man's, old man's Johnson's, Mrs. J works her fingernails to the bone keeping the little home together.

5
00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.960
Johnson doesn't make much money. Olsen keeps the books.

6
00:00:55.960 --> 00:01:00.360
So the Johnson's have to furnish the cottage with a few little old antiques.

7
00:01:10.620 --> 00:01:14.520
Yep folks, Johnson claims all these valuable pieces belong to him.

8
00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:16.820
But you know what a comedian he is.

9
00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:30.520
The Johnson's pool their resources and install this outdoor bathtub.

10
00:01:37.820 --> 00:01:44.680
The size of the guest house at Winter Garden Farms is an indication of the warm hospitality dished out by the old farmer.

11
00:01:45.220 --> 00:01:50.660
Like the farm, the playhouse is named after the theater where Olsen and Johnson have staged their laugh riots.

12
00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:02.620
Any old time Johnson has to face the music he can rush right out here and boy will he get the works.

13
00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:06.900
Well anyway, like all comedians, Johnson wants to play Hamlet.

14
00:02:07.340 --> 00:02:13.360
So we dim the foots and with the audience sitting on their hands in anticipation we await the entrance of the great tragedy.

15
00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:17.020
Never mind the phone folks, this is a modern version.

16
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:26.980
Hmm, if this is Hamlet, it must be like Shakespeare said, a foul play.

17
00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:40.340
Now that the eggs are ripe, Johnson's gathering them for his next audience.

18
00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:44.800
This is an imitation of a customer receiving a favor from Chief Big Heart.

19
00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:56.560
If Chick wants you in the audience, you'd better get there.

20
00:03:00.820 --> 00:03:07.320
Always a stickler for correct form, Chick will not even extract the lacteal fluid without reaping the hirsute harvest.

21
00:03:12.380 --> 00:03:14.280
Everybody wants to get in the act.

22
00:03:14.480 --> 00:03:17.000
Take care bossy, this genial jokester Johnson is a great actor.

23
00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:20.160
Now, one last word from Johnson, we'll have the last word. Ask Olsen.

24
00:03:26.900 --> 00:03:31.360
Fitting corrective shoes to customers feet sometimes grows a little monotonous.

25
00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:37.180
So H.G. Fields of Philadelphia varies the daily routine by collecting non-corrective shoes.

26
00:03:37.660 --> 00:03:43.960
In the past 20 years he has collected more than 400 examples of the most ill-fitting footwear to be found in this world.

27
00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:49.620
This might have been one of Cinderella's, except that it is made of bisque instead of glass.

28
00:03:56.180 --> 00:04:02.060
Materials range through silver, pewter, leather, wood, Dresden china, bisque and majolica.

29
00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:05.740
And Mr. Fields' collection has been gathered from all over the world.

30
00:04:06.220 --> 00:04:08.480
No ration coupons are needed for these models,

31
00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:13.620
but this extensive collection represents a cash outlay of more than $5,000.

32
00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:28.480
Inlaid with silver and pearls, rain slippers from Persia build on stilts to keep the wearer dry, also to add height and dignity.

33
00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:40.600
Sometimes other items besides shoes creep into the collection, but they all have a shoe motif.

34
00:04:41.400 --> 00:04:45.820
This big pewter stein is decorated with shoes and the figure of a shoemaker at his bench.

35
00:04:46.320 --> 00:04:51.360
It was presented to a Viennese shoemaker in 1713 in honor of his skilled workmanship.

36
00:04:54.440 --> 00:04:58.280
Worth $500, this Russian boot is one of Mr. Fields' prizes.

37
00:04:58.840 --> 00:05:01.920
He's one man who gets a kick out of collecting shoes.

38
00:05:06.060 --> 00:05:10.500
Remember that old tongue twister, she sells seashells by the seashore?

39
00:05:10.940 --> 00:05:15.980
Couldn't do it again, but well, anyway, Mrs. Mildred Cannon of Eldred, Florida does just that.

40
00:05:16.280 --> 00:05:20.660
But the shells she sells, try it sometime, are more than just ordinary shells.

41
00:05:20.940 --> 00:05:22.380
They are shells with a purpose.

42
00:05:22.900 --> 00:05:27.680
True enough, most of them are the ordinary shells gathered by Mrs. Cannon along the Florida shore.

43
00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:31.900
Some were received before the war, from Pacific Atolls, the Solomons, the Reds, the Reds, the Reds, the Reds, the Reds.

44
00:05:32.660 --> 00:05:36.800
But by and large, they wash up on the beach near Mrs. Cannon's home.

45
00:05:44.060 --> 00:05:52.380
What makes these shells odder than other crustacean curiosities is that Mrs. Cannon fashions them into artistic novelties designed by herself.

46
00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.620
This doll delights her young neighbors, Vivian and Libby Lou Smith.

47
00:05:57.180 --> 00:06:00.840
And despite the promise of Florida sunshine, well, who knows?

48
00:06:01.900 --> 00:06:01.900


49
00:06:10.080 --> 00:06:13.240
Rose cockle shells form the wisest of owls.

50
00:06:13.540 --> 00:06:19.900
Mrs. Cannon, by the way, knows the names of more than 100 different kinds of shells she uses to produce these entrancing creations.

51
00:06:28.460 --> 00:06:33.440
Figurines, toys, statuettes, and jewelry are all part of the output of this clever artist.

52
00:06:34.140 --> 00:06:41.320
Pipe cleaners bent to shape and fixed to the shells with cement form arms, wings, legs, and other anatomical appurtenances.

53
00:06:42.020 --> 00:06:45.060
Base shells are filled with plaster to supply sturdy supports.

54
00:06:45.520 --> 00:06:48.420
It's not a racket, it's a fascinating shell game.

55
00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:53.840
The legend of Buffalo Bill never dies.

56
00:06:54.440 --> 00:06:58.520
And one of the men who keeps it alive is H.H. Zeitz of Denver, Colorado.

57
00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:09.820
Cutting Buffalo steaks for favorite guests in his popular steakhouse, Mr. Zeitz is, at the age of 80, the only living member of that famous band of scouts that roamed the plains with Buffalo Bill Cody.

58
00:07:10.640 --> 00:07:16.240
On his trophies and his collection of guns, Scout Zeitz carries insurance totaling half a million dollars.

59
00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:21.420
But in the many years it has taken to form the collection, the scout has lived a full life.

60
00:07:21.860 --> 00:07:25.340
A cowboy at 13, he killed his first cattle rustler at 15.

61
00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:28.900
He has been a pal of sitting bull and a friend to many other Indians.

62
00:07:29.520 --> 00:07:38.280
And here he remembers the days when, with Buffalo Bill, he shot buffaloes by the hundred to feed construction crews rushing our transcontinental rails ever westward.

63
00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:52.200
Each year Shorty, as Buffalo Bill called him, goes to pay his respects at the grave of his former comrades.

64
00:07:56.140 --> 00:08:02.040
Buffalo Bill died in 1917, closing a memorable chapter in the life of the wild and bully west.

65
00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:06.580
And though his fame may dim with times passing, there is one sure thing.

66
00:08:06.840 --> 00:08:10.060
As long as Shorty lives, the great tradition will continue.

67
00:08:16.340 --> 00:08:21.240
Of all the morale builders of global war, the ones the Doughboy liked most are the Pin Up Riddies.

68
00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:26.760
The ones that adorn his temporary shelter, whether barracks, pup tents, ship, or slit trench.

69
00:08:27.280 --> 00:08:34.340
And one of the most prolific suppliers of these captivating cuties is Miss Hazel, Chick for short, Collier of Houston, Texas.

70
00:08:34.900 --> 00:08:41.960
The whole idea started when Chick sent a letter illustrated with one of her pin ups to her brother, Sergeant Donnie Collier, now overseas.

71
00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:46.100
The news spread from camp to camp and finally reached the front lines.

72
00:08:46.460 --> 00:08:49.960
Then the obliging Chick had to really get busy with her correspondence.

73
00:08:59.380 --> 00:09:03.820
Not all of Miss Collier's letters from servicemen contained requests for pin ups.

74
00:09:04.280 --> 00:09:07.880
A great many of them are thank you notes or requests for personal advice.

75
00:09:14.740 --> 00:09:19.740
Many of Chick's cuties are portrait sized, but most of them adorn envelopes and note paper.

76
00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:23.620
In any case, they're just what our soldiers and sailors whistle for.

77
00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:26.780
And, yes, she never had an art lesson.

78
00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.620
Even Sad Sack would cheer up at the sight of this pin up.

79
00:09:34.060 --> 00:09:37.660
And what's more, Miss Collier pays for her own materials and posters.

80
00:09:38.140 --> 00:09:40.600
She says, the pleasure is all hers.

