Johnny Olson


John Leonard Olson was an American radio personality and television announcer. Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. Olson was the longtime announcer for the original To Tell the Truth and What's My Line?, and spent over a decade as the announcer for both Match Game and The Price Is Right, working on the latter series at the time of his death.

Early career

Born in Windom, Minnesota, Olson enrolled in pharmacy classes at the University of Minnesota. He also worked a string of odd jobs, from soda jerk to singer. After 1928, he landed jobs at WIBA in Poynette, Wisconsin and KGDA in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Olson joined WTMJ in Milwaukee in early 1933, organizing a five-piece jazz band called The Rhythm Rascals, and became one of the station's most popular personalities. The Rascals eventually made it to Hollywood, and would send daily recordings of their shows back to WTMJ. Olson would eventually return to Milwaukee and WTMJ, where he would go on to create the first iteration of Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room. The show attracted major national performers, including Spike Jones and The Andrews Sisters. By 1942, the immense popularity of Rumpus Room prompted WTMJ to dedicate the large unfinished television studio in their new facility to the program.
Olson's first network job on radio was in New York City in 1944, hosting the audience-participation show Ladies Be Seated, a stunt game along the lines of Truth or Consequences, broadcast on NBC Blue. He had previously hosted several radio shows in Chicago, including the second iteration of Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room, a late-night variety show broadcast from 10:30 p.m. to 12 midnight, which was also the name of a later daytime talk show he hosted on the DuMont Television Network. He also was host of Johnny Olson's Luncheon Club on ABC radio in 1950-1951.

Work for DuMont Television Network

In 1945, Olson and his wife hosted a five-week run of a TV version of Ladies Be Seated. From May 1947 to July 1949, Olson hosted Doorway to Fame, an evening television talent show on the new DuMont Television Network. From January 1949 to July 1952, Olson hosted Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room, a daytime television talk show which was the first daytime show broadcast from DuMont's flagship station WABD over DuMont's small East Coast network. Olson also hosted the Saturday-morning children's show Kids and Company on DuMont from September 1951 to June 1952, with co-host Ham Fisher.

Early announcing work

On television, Olson was an announcer on Break the Bank and was the announcer and sometimes the host on Fun for the Money on ABC-TV in 1949. Olson was the announcer on the final year of the CBS version of Name That Tune in 1958; also in that year, Olson began his long association with Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions when he began announcing for the Merv Griffin-hosted Play Your Hunch, which lasted until 1963. In the late 1960s, he was also a substitute announcer on the ABC version of Supermarket Sweep.
Beginning in 1960, Olson announced the CBS prime-time panel game To Tell the Truth. The following year, he added duties on sister show What's My Line?, and in 1962 began announcing on the original Match Game in daytime on NBC until that series ended in 1969.
Olson was also announcer for The Jackie Gleason Show from 1962 until its cancellation in 1970. The first few seasons of the variety show were recorded in New York City, while the last few seasons were produced in Miami Beach, Florida.
Olson continued to announce What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth after both shows moved from CBS to syndication in the late 1960s. His involvement with those shows ended when he was designated announcer of the 1972 revivals of The Price Is Right and I've Got a Secret, both of which were taped in Hollywood, where he relocated.

''The Price Is Right''

While Name That Tune, To Tell the Truth, What's My Line, and The Match Game put Olson in the elite class of television game-show announcers, the revival of The Price Is Right cemented Olson's fame. In addition to serving as host Bob Barker's sidekick, Olson was a beloved and valued member of the "cast." He warmed up the audiences prior to taping; during taping, he often received on-camera exposure prior to calling out the contestants' names; he also frequently appeared in the showcases.
His exhortation for contestants to "Come on down!" became a catchphrase, and a Price Is Right tradition observed by his successors Rod Roddy, Rich Fields, and George Gray.

''Match Game'' and later career

In 1973, Olson began announcing for the revived Match Game, another show transplanted from New York to California; the show's tagline, "Get ready to match the stars!" became a second catchphrase associated with him for the following nine years. Like executive producer Mark Goodson, Olson filled in on the days when a scheduled guest failed to appear in time for a taping. Olson only missed one taping of Match Game during the CBS years; Bern Bennett served as his fill-in for one week of daytime shows and one nighttime show in 1975.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, during the peak of his announcing duties on Price and Match, he worked on several other Goodson-Todman game shows. He announced Now You See It, Concentration, Mindreaders, Double Dare, Body Language, and the 1982-84 revival of Tattletales. He also filled in for Bob Hilton on Blockbusters and for Gene Wood on the NBC version of Card Sharks, Password Plus, and The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour.
Olson's name was occasionally the solution to clues and puzzles on shows for which he announced; this occurred on both Now You See It and Body Language. Additionally, when "Come on _______" was used as a question in the "Super Match" portion of an episode of Match Game '78, host Gene Rayburn called Olson to center stage to read the top answer.

Death

On October 6, 1985, Olson had a stroke on his way to work and was taken to St. Johns Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, California, where he died on October 12, 1985, at age 75. The following Monday, October 14, Bob Barker paid tribute to Olson in an attached 20-second segment that followed the end credits of The Price Is Right. The last new Olson-announced The Price Is Right episode aired on November 21, 1985. Olson was entombed at Rosewood Cemetery in Lewisburg, West Virginia.
Following Johnny's death on October 12th, 1985, starting on Monday, October 14th, 1985, at the end of each Price Is Right episode until 1986, Bob Barker gives a 20 second tribute speech "Since taping this program, we've lost our good friend, Johnny Olson. You will continue to see & hear Johnny on the many programs he's already taped, he was dearly loved by all of us, & he'll be sorely missed." The tribute shows a picture of Johnny Olson & says IN MEMORIAM 1910-1985.