No Kansas couple contributed more to modern film than Chanute native Osa Johnson and her husband Martin. That’s what Jacquelyn Borgeson, head curator at the Osa and Martin Johnson Safari Museum, Chanute, will convey to viewers during her Saturday afternoon presentation at the 19th Annual Iola Buster Keaton and the Kansas Filmmakers celebration in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Born in 1894, Osa Johnson became one of the earliest film pioneers after she met and married Martin, an Independence native, adventurer and documentarian, in 1910. At the time, Martin had already undergone one lengthy expedition to the Africa wild lands. Over the next 25 years, the couple would make nine more trips to exotic lands, including Africa, the Pacific Islands and Asia.
Borgeson, in her 16th year as curator for the Chanute museum, said although the Johnsons are best known for their Hollywood productions, some of which are still used by the Walt Disney Company and other film studios, she’ll spend the afternoon shedding light on a less publicized topic.
“It took a year and a half to get from Chanute, Kansas to where they were going to film,” she said. “The behind the scenes of (the films) will be what sparks a lot of the interests of the film buffs that come.”
Once the Johnsons reached their destination, they’d spend a year filming and exploring, Borgeson said. Then they would spend another year and a half coming home.
“Just think about how much it cost back then to travel to Africa,” Borgeson said, adding that the couple would borrow nearly every penny to fund the trips.
And it wasn’t just travel and film costs. The two explorers would have to prepare for every hiccup they could imagine.
“They’d take a car to Africa with them but they basically had to take three,” Borgeson said. “There are no car shops in the middle of Africa so every pin that could break, they had to have. It wasn’t all film equipment they were bringing over.”
Keaton Committee member Keith Goering, who helped organize the weekend’s silent film celebration, said all Kansans, and Americans for that matter, should be proud of the impact the Johnsons had on the film industry, which is still felt today.
“They were extremely well-known, and enormously popular figures,” he said. “And they pioneered a lot of work in camera development … to make cameras that would hold up in the tropical climates.”
Osa Johnson paved the way for a lot of women’s liberation, Goering said.
“Osa did a lot of things that women just didn’t do,” he said. “She was considered the best marksman in all of Africa and she did a lot of things you just didn’t expect of women.”
Osa Johnson also piloted aircraft and was considered an early adopter in the fashion world, being named one the 10 best-dressed women in the world in 1927.
Following Borgeson’s presentation, “Special Travels of Osa & Martin Johnson, Kansas Filmmakers,” a rare film clip of the New York City premiere of “Congorilla” will be played. The Johnson presentation begins at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
