Evening star., 1937-01-13
martin JOHNSON
| NEVER FEARED AIR.
World Loses Man Who
Ranged Last Frontiers
With Camera.
BY the Associated Press.

oy tIIe hSSOCldleQ FIeSS.
Martin johnson died today and the
worlds movie audiences lost an enter
tainer who ranged the globes last
frontiers with camera focused on
both the factual and the humorous.
"UneaSy?" he echoed q questioner
last october when, freshly returned
from years expedition in Borneo,
he was in the act of establishing him.
self in New York hotel with assorted
simians and thousands of feet of
movie film.
Il was naver afraid of exploration
by air. Our ship-and we own two
of them--is as safe as a truck on the
Kansas plains. We just pull on the
throttle and take Off"
He and Mrs. johnson, the plump.
smiling Osa. invaded the interior of
Borneo by boat and plane. Their
machine, a low-speed, poky affair
adapted to both land and water take
offs, had carried them to hitherto
unphotographed portions of Africa
and other continents.
No" he said, I'm not afraid of
flying"
Proud Of His Achievements.
He was proud of his explorations
and proud of the way he cared for his
animals.
Eight hundred dollars worth Of
food" he added, that's what we fed
those animals on the way back from
| Borneo. They live like kings"
Nervously intense, and apparently a
little flustered to be catapulted off an
ocean freighter into the center of
Manhattan's teeming traffic, he rum
mayed through his pockets fruitlessly
to find money to pay porters who had
| just brought up the baggage.
Osa, mothering an orang-outarg a
score of stories above New York s
traffic. came to his rescue.
I'VE don't use money where we just
came from" she volunteered.
johnson priced his films He shook
his head over the trouble. expense and
danger involved in taking them, be-
cause he knew the cutting room would
shave down their running time.
Sometimes He Left Show,
"Know what do?" he asked. "Well
! spend months getting these films.
I bring them back. They are pieced
together. I look at the result. Then
I leave town. Sometimes I stay long
enough to go to a theater and see
what they've done to my work, and
invariably get mad and get up in
the middle of the show and leave"
He appended. forgivingly: Yes. ]
know the American public can't be
expected to sit through three days of
the Martin Johnsons in Africa OF
Borneo. The stuff has to be cut"
Osa. too, had never a qualm about
plane travel. She chortled as she told
about flying into the interior of Borneo
and landing the amphibian on a river
before the eyes of natives who had
never seen an airplane before.
"1t took us hours to coax them out
Of the jungle" she said.
The King Kelly" Story.
One of Martins prize stories In
volved one King Kelly" an Irish
concessionaire in Central Park. A few
years ago the Martins brought over
| from British East Africa a couple oi
Swahili tribesmen to help with q
shipment of Simians. One of the
natives proved fractions and refused
to desert the delights of Harlem.
Kelly rounded up the wanderer and
put him aboard boat outbound.
Months later Martin wrote Kelly
from Swahili-land, The tribe has
voted you King" Kelly refused the
honor. Martin wrote warningly. The
curse Of the Swahilis has been put
on you. But you can escape 1t by
bowing before an ebony idol I'm
sending"
Kelly bowed. The curse was lifted
Martin always told the story with his
| tongue in his cheek.
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