Television Talkers

 

Johnny Olsen (1910-85) was an American radio personality and television announcer. Before hearing his tenor voice on television, Olson was ensconced in radio. He joined WTMJ in Milwaukee in early 1933, organizing a five-piece jazz band called The Rhythm Rascals, and became one of the station's most popular personalities. He would later create the first iteration of Johnny Olson's Rumpus Room, which attracted major national performers. After World War II, he revived the show in 1949.

Olson began his tenure as a television announcer in 1949, but few knew about it. By the Sixties, his voice was closely associated with game shows, particularly the work for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, the original To Tell the Truth and What's My Line? He spent over a decade as the announcer for both Match Game and The Price Is Right, where his high-pitched enthusiastic, "Come on down!" became legendary and often parodied. From 1962 to 1970, he was the announcer for The Jackie Gleason Show. During the peak of his announcing duties in the 1970s and early 1980s, his distinct voice was heard on more than six other game show productions.