I just read of Dennis Johnson’s passing (“
One summer, late 1960s, I worked the Diamond Circle Theatre. Dennis would do”Toot-Toot-Tootsie, Good-bye, or ”The Cremation of Sam McGee, every night as his acts in the Old Time Oleo Shows. At the same time, I would be cleaning the bar and washing glasses. I saw Dennis, six other Oleo acts and two melodramas every night for months.
How good was Dennis? I never even remembered the other acts (though they were good) but I took such joy in watching his that even today I know his two acts by heart. Tootsie was a favorite request from my son and daughter for bedtime stories when they were little. Sam was memorized (and loved) by some of the so-called roughest, at-risk high school students in the Kansas City area. All that happened because Dennis was so entertaining in those parts.
There is one other thing. ABC TV ran a half-hour series in the mid 1960s, NYPD. The opening credits showed a police cruiser skidding to a halt and two policemen exiting the vehicle. One of those was reportedly Dennis when he was trying to get network acting parts. I don’t know if that is true, but I’d like to think so,and I’d like to find out.
Good night, sweet prince.
David Watkins
Reddington Shores, Florida
