''Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room'' was a 1949-1952 American
variety show
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp ...
hosted by
Johnny Olson
John Leonard Olson (May 22, 1910 – October 12, 1985) 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 P ...
.
Broadcast history
The show aired at 10 am ET from January 17, 1949, to July 4, 1952, on the DuMont Television Network.
The show was one of the first
daytime television
Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., following the early morning da ...
shows broadcast from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
to DuMont's small network of East Coast cities. Olson also hosted the DuMont talent show ''
Doorway to Fame
''Doorway to Fame'' is an American talent show broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. The series ran from May 2, 1947, to July 11, 1949.
Overview
The series used early television scene-blending technology to project the perfor ...
'' (May 1947 – July 1949), and DuMont's Saturday-morning children's show ''
Kids and Company
''Kids and Company'' is an American children's TV show that aired on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network on Saturday mornings from September 1, 1951 to May 2, 1953 and was hosted by Johnny Olson (billed as "Johnny Olsen" in the credits) and ...
'' (September 1951 – June 1952).
According to the book ''What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s'' (University of Texas Press, 2005) by Marsha Cassidy, the DuMont daytime schedule beginning in January 1949 was:
*10-10:30 am ''Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room''
*10:30-11 am ''Welcome, Neighbors''
*11 am-12 noon ''The Stan Shaw Show''
*12 noon-12:15 pm '' Amanda''
*12:15-12:30 pm ''Man in the Street''
*12:30-12:45 pm ''
Camera Headlines
''Camera Headlines'' was an early American television series that aired from January 1948 to 1949 on the DuMont Television Network.
Broadcast history
DuMont's previous national news program, '' The Walter Compton News'', had premiered on DuMont st ...
''
*12:45-1 pm ''Fashions in Song''
*1-1:30 pm ''
Okay, Mother
''Okay, Mother'' is an American daytime television, daytime Variety show, variety/game show which originally aired on WNYW, WABD in New York City in 1948.
Broadcast history
The series, hosted by Dennis James, began on WABD, then aired on the DuMo ...
The Needle Shop
''The Needle Shop'' was an early American television program which aired on the DuMont Television Network in a 15-minute timeslot at 2:30pm ET weekdays. The program aired on New York City television station WABD from 1948 to 1949.
Broadcast hist ...
''
*3:15-3:30 pm ''Vincent Lopez Speaking'' (''
The Vincent Lopez Show
''The Vincent Lopez Show'', also known as ''Vincent Lopez Speaking'', is a 1949-1957 American musical television program hosted by Vincent Lopez and broadcast on the DuMont Television Network, and later on CBS Television. The latter title is a t ...
'')
Olson's career
In the 1940s, Olson hosted a popular radio show also titled ''Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room'' at WTMJ in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
. Sometime after 1943, Johnny moved the show (WTMJ continued to air ''Rumpus Room'' with a new host) to WMAQ in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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as an evening variety show running 10:30 pm to 12 midnight ( CT). Olson went on to become a famous announcer on American
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...
s, including as the announcer on ''
The Price Is Right
''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also inc ...
'' on CBS Television and first-run syndication from 1972 until his death (the nighttime version of ''The Price Is Right'' reunited Olson with another prominent DuMont personality,
Dennis James
Dennis James (born Demie James Sposa, August 24, 1917 – June 3, 1997) was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other telev ...
, for its first five years on air).
See also
*
List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
This is a list of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network, which operated in the United States from 1942 to 1956. All regularly scheduled programs which were aired on the DuMont network are listed below, regardless of whether they orig ...
*
List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
The DuMont Television Network was launched in 1946 and ceased broadcasting in 1956. Allen DuMont, who created the network, preserved most of what it produced in kinescope format. By 1958, however, much of the library had been destroyed to recove ...
*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press
Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...
, 2004)
*Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Ballantine Books, 1964)