impressive riffs on filmmaking convention. The picture, a movie within a movie within a play within a movie, foreshadowed a style of comedy that would later find its way into the films of Mel Brooks, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and TV's Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film is also known for having what many consider to be the finest example of swing dancing ever put on film, performed by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (here billed as the Harlem Congeroo Dancers) with Frankie Manning. Although the film is tied up in litigation, a Region 2 DVD has been released. Olsen and Johnson's Hollywood career was very much a hit-and-miss affair. Hellzapoppin''', following their string of earlier failures, was then followed in turn by Crazy House, which was then followed by the slick Ghost Catchers, with most of the wildness confined to the comics' nightclub scenes. Later years After their final starring movie, See My Lawyer, was released in 1945, the team tried but failed to make its mark on television with Fireball Fun-For-All, a summer replacement for Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle. They attempted to make a comeback with one last Broadway revue, Pardon Our French, but the show failed to catch fire and they entered semi-retirement. With the advent of Las Vegas as a gambling and entertainment mecca, the team was able to find steady work until Johnson became too ill to perform. Chic Johnson died of kidney failure on February 26, 1962, in Las Vegas. He was buried on March 1, 1962, and eventually joined in an adjacent plot by Ole Olsen in Palm Desert Memorial cemetery in Las Vegas. See also Olsen and Johnson References Other sources Maltin, Leonard. Movie Comedy Teams'' (New York: Signet, 1970, revised 1985) External links 1891 births 1962 deaths Male actors from Chicago American male comedians American male musical theatre actors Vaudeville performers American people of Swedish descent Deaths from kidney failure 20th-century American male actors Comedians from Illinois 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers