The remarkable journeys, groundbreaking films, and lasting legacy of Kansas explorers Martin and Osa Johnson
Advances in technology have given us knowledge of places once remote and mysterious.
But imagine being a child in the late 1920s—sitting on the edge of your theater seat as the big screen flickers and, on the screen, a Kansas woman dances with native children or shoots a charging rhinoceros. Taking in the wonder of it all, your eyes are wide as saucers. Just then Osa Johnson points to a lion ravaging the belly of a zebra while her husband, Martin, captures the scene with his hand-cranked Universal motion picture camera.
Martin was born in 1884 and raised in Lincoln Center, but later moved to Independence. He loved animals and had the keen eye of a photographer for capturing the uniqueness of each creature. He used this talent to finance his adventures, selling photos for a penny apiece. His father, John Johnson, had hoped Martin would join him in his jewelry business, but a magazine ad by Jack London seeking an assistant for a trip on the high seas squelched that.
After his adventure, Martin returned to Kansas in 1909. He hosted a lecture in Chanute where he showed colored lantern slides of the Solomon Islands; in attendance was Osa Leighty. She recalled not being all that impressed (as noted in her autobiography, I Married Adventure), yet after a few weeks they eloped and Osa became an unwitting partner in a truly great love story.
Osa was a force to be reckoned with. According to the History of American Journalism website, in the 1920s “Osa Johnson’s popularity matched that of Eleanor Roosevelt or Ann Lindbergh.” Her natural beauty enhanced her stardom, but it was her courageous, daring nature that won the hearts of viewers. Not to take anything from Martin’s genius as an explorer and photographer, but how many women would live in a jungle among cannibals, headhunters and wild animals?
Martin adored Osa and delighted in others being enamored with her as well.
“Osa enjoyed the spotlight, but she also had an unshakable faith in Martin’s abilities,” says Jacque Borgeson, curator of the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute. Osa was willing to do whatever it took for Martin to be successful, Borgeson says, from learning to shoot a gun in the event of a charging animal to scurrying animals into action for the camera.
Because finances were an ongoing issue, Osa and Martin became skilled at raising money from private investors and public corporations like Coca-Cola, Maxwell House and Coleman, products they endorsed. Increasing the exhilaration of their own adventures, Osa and Martin took two Sikorsky amphibian planes on an air safari of Africa in 1933. They became the first explorers to film Mount Kenya and the glittering peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro from the air. Despite being plagued with fog, inaccurate maps, blinding thunderstorms and emergency landings within seconds of running out of gas, the fearless duo soared again another day, flying 60,000 miles over Africa and another 30,000 miles over Borneo.
In 1937, Martin was killed in an airplane crash on a flight to California. The same flight left Osa badly injured, with a concussion and a fractured knee. Regardless of the pain and grief, she fulfilled the couple’s contract for a lecture series while still in a wheelchair.
The Johnsons were prolific in documenting their travels, writing 12 books and six children’s books and making 26 films.
“The task of preserving their legacy fell upon Osa’s mother, Belle Leighty, who inherited a treasure trove when Osa died in 1953. The Library of Congress also received 1,000 cans of Johnson film, many of which have never been used in their pictures,” says Conrad Froehlich, Safari Museum director. Their lives inspired Danger Trails comic strip and the television series Big Game Hunt.
Even today, their work is celebrated inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney World.
In 1961 the Safari Museum opened in a Santa Fe freight building and later relocated after restoration of the train depot in Chanute. Manhattan author Jay Workman’s Complete Guide to Kansas Museums ranks the Safari Museum tops among 249 museums in the state.
AT THE MOVIES
Martin and Osa Johnson began making films together in 1918, creating what would become a legacy to stand the test of time.
Simba (1928)
Natives pull the Johnson Fords by rope across crocodile- and hippopotami-infested river en route to their discovery of a herd of elephants near Lake Paradise at the core of an extinct volcano. The film features the Lumbwa tribe lion hunting.
Across the World (1930)
This film includes narration of formerly released silent films. It is edited as if Martin and Osa are entertaining friends at a party and pull out their home movies.
Congorilla (1932)
For the first time, America sees Pygmies stick dancing, drumming, hear sounds in the wild of a lion’s roar and a gorilla beating its chest. The film initiated a fascination with the big apes, and King Kong was produced the following year.
Baboona (1935)
This film features the first flying safari over Africa presenting the diverse terrain of the Serengeti plains and the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro. Osa runs off a lion lunging at her plane by dousing him in a sack of flour. The picture is also known for the colony of baboons it presents.
Borneo (1937)
Critics consider Borneo to be Martin’s finest film, although he died before being able to edit it himself. It includes scenes of landing their plan on the Kinabatangan River as the natives look on in disbelief.
I Married Adventure (1941)
This film is a compilation of the best scenes from all their travels. Hollywood casts Osa as herself and Jim Bannan as Martin in in studio shots that knit the footage together.
