The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire presents “Martin and Osa Johnson: Adventure’s First Couple,” a combination lecture and movie screening, at Wilton Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Thursday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m.
The evening will open with a review of the career of Martin and Osa Johnson, a Kansas couple who gained worldwide fame in the early 20th century for far-flung exploits that combined adventure, aviation and wildlife photography. Often wearing classic safari outfits topped by pith helmets, the duo journeyed deep into Africa and Asia in the 1920s and 1930s, getting the first motion pictures of exotic wildlife in its native habitat.
Back home and in Europe, they achieved great popularity on the lecture circuit by recounting their exploits in foreign lands. After Martin Johnson learned to fly, they used Sikorsky float planes painted with zebra and giraffe markings to reach remote regions of Africa and Asia, and also photograph wildlife from the air. The couple produced several wildlife documentary films chronicling their adventures.
The program will include a screening of “Simba: King of the Beasts,” a 1928 a documentary the Johnsons compiled from film they shot in Africa from 1923 to 1927. The silent film will be shown with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, executive director of the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire. Rapsis prepared the program with assistance from the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum of Chanute, Kan., Osa Johnson’s hometown.
Rapsis will also provide live music for the screening. The “Simba” documentary is not recommended for children due to graphic scenes of violence that include the shooting and killing of animals.
“The story of the Johnsons is one that combines aviation with so much else that humans find fascinating,” Rapsis stated. “Their work is worth looking at today because it’s about topics that remain fascinating: animals, wildlife, adventure, and exotic places. But now, so many decades later, their work has an added layer because it displays attitudes that prevailed a century ago in topics such as gender roles, treatment of animals and race. As such, it can teach us a lot.”
Martin Johnson was killed in 1937 in an airplane crash in California. Osa Johnson later wrote a best-selling book, “I Married Adventure,” which recounted the couple’s expeditions. Following her death in 1953, the couple’s fame faded and their achievements were largely forgotten as new wilderness stars emerged in the television era, including Marlin Perkins (producer of “Wild Kingdom”) and undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau.
However, the Sikorsky S-39 single-engine float plane captured the imagination of Dick Jackson, a pilot and mechanic from Rochester, New Hampshire. Only 21 such aircraft were built in 1930 and 1931, and by the early 1960s all had been lost or junked. In 1963 Jackson chose to restore a Sikorsky S-39 to flyable condition, an effort took more than four decades until 2003, when Jackson completed the work and the world’s only remaining S-39 made its maiden flight.
In honor of the Johnsons, the plane was painted in exactly the same giraffe pattern used by the couple during their African adventures. Today the aircraft remains airworthy, and is part of the collection housed at the “Fantasy of Flight” museum in Polk City, Fla. The program will include recent scenes of the restored Sikorsky in flight, and on the water.
The event is open to the public, and tickets are $10 at the door. The theater does not require face coverings, but encourages patrons to practice social distancing.
Proceeds benefit the nonprofit Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, which is dedicated to celebrating New Hampshire’s role in aviation history and inspiring tomorrow’s pioneers, innovators and aerospace professionals. “Martin and Osa Johnson: Adventure’s First Couple” is the first in a series of humanities programs planned for 2022. For information, visit aviationmuseumofnh.org or call 603-669-4820. Follow the Aviation Museum on Facebook.