Swedish-American Entertainer
His given name was Hjalmar Peterson, and he was born in the Swedish province of Vrmland. Arriving in the United States in 1906, he eventually settled in Minneapolis. At first Peterson worked as a bricklayer in the new country, but before long he embarked on a career as a professional entertainer. In 1909 he returned to Sweden as a member of The Swedish-American Quartet, and during its two-year tour he gathered the songs, stories and jokes he would later use as a solo performer.
Back in America Peterson adopted the stage name Olle i Skratthult (Olle from Laughtersville) and began performing on the Scandinavian-language vaudeville circuit. Olle was a bondkomiker (peasant comic), and he dressed the part with a blacked-out tooth and straw-colored wig. By 1916 he had a touring group, and the following year he married the company leading lady, Olga Lindgren.
Olle i Skratthult was a full-time entertainer for most of his adult life and for many years was the most famous performer in Scandinavian vaudeville. During the 1920s he toured the country with a large band and was enthusiastically greeted by both ethnic and mainstream audiences. His touring company also had several actors. An evening entertainment often began with a short play, followed by Olle songs and stories and ended with a public dance. A full-length theatrical evening was rare unless it was the beloved musical drama Vrmlnningarna (The People of Vrmland).
A Phenomenon
Last night I decided to try to gain entrance to Tuckerman Hall, and since I did not arrive until 8 o'clock, I would not have been able to get in if it had not been for my press pass. I lost two buttons on my overcoat in the melee, but that did not matter, as long as I finally got a seat that is I had to be satisfied with standing room in the rear. And, I did something I had never done before, and never expect to do again unless I go to an "Olle-show" that is I stood on my two tired feet over two hours and enjoyed myself. There is a lot of complaining to be heard from theatrical people, to the effect that revenue is falling off and that the radio and the phonographs keep the public at home. Well, the Swedish public at least did not stay at home that night. The hall was packed an hour before the time when it was scheduled to start, and hundreds clamored for admittance in vain. A man, who can attract crowds like that in these days, must be a phenomenon. Of course he does not do all the performing himself; he is ably assisted by his lovely wife, Olga, and by some very clever dancers, and a bunch of virtuosos, who make up the Olle i Skratthult orchestra. It is a splendid aggregation of musicians, to say the least, and I need not add that my tired feet forgot their tired feeling as soon as the first strains from the instruments were heard, and I danced with glee until the "Home! Sweet Home!" gave the signal that the show was at an end. Burt Maxwell in the Worcester Telegram (MA)
Later Years
Peterson only performed in Swedish, and as the use of that language declined in America so too did his popularity. As the tours became smaller there were fewer musicians and actors to accompany him. At the very end there was only Olle.
Hjalmar and Olga were divorced in 1933. He remarried, and his second marriage produced two children. He stopped touring and appeared only on the radio.
Near the end of his life Peterson underwent a religious conversion and sang hymns under the auspices of The Salvation Army.
Popular Recording Artist
Between 1916 and 1929 Olle i Skratthult recorded 46 songs, primarily for Columbia and Victor Records. In addition, Olle Luffare Kapell (Hobo Orchestra) recorded 18 instrumental tracks for Victor. Some of the Victor numbers were subsequently released on the company low-priced Bluebird label. A contemporary recording artist, who had much in common with Olle, was Charles G. Widdn.
For the most part Olle recorded comic songs, but he covered a few romantic numbers such as Friarevalsen (The Suitor Waltz) and Malmvalsen (The Malm Waltz), which was a duet with his wife Olga. Both of the songs were by the songwriting team of Gran Svenning and David Hellstrm.
As a recording artist Olle often drew on material from well-known Swedish songwriters and entertainers. Luffarevalsen (The Hobo Waltz) had lyrics by Emil Norlander, a producer of Stockholm revues. Jazz p Landet (better known as Johan p Snippen) had a text by the famous bondkomiker Sknska Lasse. The lyricist for Finska Valsen (The Finnish Waltz) was Ernst Rolf, who in the 1920s was one of Sweden biggest stars.
Not all of Olle songs had Swedish roots. Den Lustige Kopparslagarn (The Jolly Coppersmith), which Olle recorded three times, was of German origin. Barndomshemmet (My Childhood Home) was introduced to American audiences by his wife Olga. It was an adaptation of n the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away, the state song of Indiana. There were other examples of American popular music in Olle repertoire. ust Kiss Yourself Good-Bye" in Swedish became Petters Olycksaliga Frieri (Peter's Unlucky Marriage Proposal). "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" was likewise Spbubblor (Soap Bubbles). "Just Kiss Yourself Good-Bye" was a so-called Coon song, but its racial stereotypes were absent from the Swedish version.
Some of Olle final recordings were taken from more traditional sources. In 1928 he recorded the folk song Jag gick mig ut en sommerdag (I went out one summer day). The next year he recorded a broadside ballad called Hjalmar och Hulda (Hjalmar and Hulda). These sorrowful tales were a departure from his usual lighthearted fare.
In addition to his records Olle published many songbooks over the years. The small pamphlets included songs and stories that the public only knew through his live performances. Authors from his native Vrmland such as Fredrik August Dahlgren and Gustaf Frding were well represented. Olle i Skratthult's 1921 and 1922 songbooks are on file at the Minnesota Historical Society.
Olle i Skratthult will be forever associated with the song Nikolina. He recorded it in 1917 for Columbia and in 1923 and 1929 for Victor. It is estimated that 100,000 copies of the song were sold, a remarkable feat for a foreign-language record.
Nikolina is the tragicomic story of a couple, whose desire for romantic happiness is thwarted by the girl autocratic father. The song became enormously popular with immigrant audiences, who strongly identified with the young lovers plight. An English version, popularized by Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid (Ernest and Clarence Iverson), introduced the song to the rest of America.
Renewed Interest in Olle i Skratthult
In the 1970s Olle i Skratthult was rediscovered in his native country and in the United States. The Swedish Emigrant Institute of Vxsj, Sweden gave prominent mention to Olle i Skratthult and Charles G. Widdn in a 1973 exhibit on entertainment in Swedish America. A small disc was produced for the occasion with excerpts from their songs and stories.
The Snoose Boulevard Festival was held in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis from 1972 through 1977. In the early 1900s Cedar Avenue had been known as noose Boulevard, a nickname often given to the main street in Scandinavian communities. The term derived from the residents fondness for snus (snuff), an inexpensive form of tobacco. The event, which celebrated the area Scandinavian past, featured the music, food, and arts of the immigrants who had once lived there. It also highlighted the careers of Olle i Skatthult (Hjalmar Peterson), Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid (Ernest and Clarence Iverson) and the Olson Sisters (Eleonora and Ethel Olson).
The headline performer was the Swedish-born singer Anne-Charlotte Harvey. In conjunction with the festival she recorded three albums of folk tunes, emigrant ballads, hymns, waltzes and comic songs. The non-profit Olle i Skratthult Project sponsored the annual celebration and the recordings. Harvey albums, produced by the renowned ethnomusicologist Maury Bernstein, included twelve songs from Olle repertoire. In 1976 the Olle i Skratthult Project reissued two of Olle's most popular recordings as a single: Nikolina and Flickan P Bellmansro.
Banjar Records, a label based in the Twin Cities, released one song by Olle and two by his Hobo Orchestra in 1983.
Olle's recordings were released in Sweden as well. The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research had three of his songs on its album rom Sweden To America, which was released as an LP in 1981 and as a CD in 1996.
Twenty years after the first Snoose Boulevard Festival the Great American History Theatre of St. Paul paid tribute to Hjalmar Peterson in its 1992 production lle From Laughtersville. During the play run a souvenir audio cassette was sold with four of Olle recordings: Nikolina, Flickan P Bellmansro, Friarevalsen and Min Sngrst Den Kan Ej Betalas Med Gull (a duet with Olga Lindgren).
Illustrator R. Crumb put out a CD in 2000 with some of his favorite vintage recordings. Olle's Hobo Orchestra not only provided one of the tunes but also appeared on the cover in a drawing by the artist.
ikolina (1917 recording)
When you're in love, you're in an awful torture,
whoever's tried it would not disagree.
I was so very fond of Nikolina
and Nikolina just as fond of me.
I asked her papa for her hand in marriage
and got the answer in the strangest way.
I never yet have left from any doorstep
in such a hurry as I did that day.
Then I went home and wrote to Nikolina,
"Oh, Nikolina, won't you meet me soon!
Meet me in the woods on Wednesday evening,
and be there with the rising of the moon."
And there I met a figure disconcerting,
the moon no greater glory could attain.
The one I met was Nikolina's papa,
armed with the meanest, most disturbing cane.
And all at once my knees began to tremble,
I tried to run but there was not a chance,
for in the woods when on my knees I stumbled,
the cane began to do a polka dance.
Then I went home and wrote to Nikolina,
"There's not the slightest bit of hope in me.
If you don't end me of this awful torture,
I'll end it all by jumping in the sea."
And Nikolina answered in a hurry,
"Oh, darling Karl, don't be so unwise!
A suicide is nothing but a dumbbbell,
why don't we wait until the old man dies?"
And now I wait and so does Nikolina
to see the old man kick the bucket soon,
and on his grave we're planting for remembrance
the cane he used upon me `neath the moon.
1921 Songbook
Cat Eye
My brother, you know, he got a little sick. And so I took him to the doctor. The doctor he said there was something wrong with my brother eye. So the doctor he took out my brother eye and put it in a bowl that was sitting on the table. But then something awful happened. The doctor big cat was in the room too, and she saw my brother eye lying in that bowl. And the cat she went and swallowed up the eye of my brother. And I didn want to say anything, of course, when the doctor didn say anything. But no sooner had it happened than the doctor turned and saw the empty bowl. And then he said, Where has your brother eye gone? And then I said, Well, and I laughed and said, the cat swallowed it. But then the doctor got furious and took the cat by the rump and threw her against the wall, and all at once she was as dead as a doornail. Then the doctor took out the cat eye and put it in my brother, and he was fine and could see fine with the cat eye. But one time a little later on I was on the front steps at home when the doctor came by. And he said, How your brother doing? Oh, thank you, Mister Doctor, I said, everything just fine. He sees real good with that cat eye. But the worst thing is that now he watches the girls with the one eye, and he watches the rat holes with the other.
First We Ate Up The Cow
Well, the other day when I was out walking, I met my cousin Josef from Muck Meadow. I couldn't understand what was wrong, why he wasn't working, 'cause he'd been working for several years for that big farmer over at Sweet Ridge, so I asked him if he wasn't working there anymore. No, he said, I quit, he said. Really? You quit? I said. Yes, he said, I quit, he said. Oh, I said, but why did you quit? I said. Well, he said, the food got so bad, he said. Really, I said, the food got so bad? I said. Yes, he said, the food got so bad, he said, so I had to quit, he said. You see, he said, first the big cow died, he said, and then we had to eat her up, he said; and then all of a sudden the big sow died, and then we had to eat her up, he said. But, he said, finally the farmer's wife died, he said, and that's when I quit! he said.
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project has no recordings by Olle i Skratthult, but it does have versions of his songs by other artists.
Home, Sweet Home - Eleonora de Cisneros
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles - Helen Clark and George Wilton Ballard
The Jolly Coppersmith - Indestructible Military Band
Just Kiss Yourself Good-Bye - Arthur Collins
On The Banks Of The Wabash - Vernon Archibald
Sangaren Pa Vandring - Arvid Asplund
Project Runeberg
Project Runeberg has the lyrics for four songs that were in Olle i Skratthult's songbooks.
Fredrik August Dahlgren
Saras funderinger
Gustaf Frding
Farvll. En sorgens ton frn Amerka
Tre trallande jntor
Zacharias Topelius
Rose-Marie
References
^ Swedes In The Twin Cities edited by Philip K. Anderson and Dag Blanck, (St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001) pp. 149 - 172.
^ a b Ethnic Theatre in the United States edited by Maxine Schwartz Seller, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983) pp. 491 - 524.
^ A Passion For Polka: Old-Time Ethnic Music In America by Victor R. Greene, (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992).
^ a b c d Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893-1942 by Richard K. Spottswood, (University of Illinois Press, 1990) LCCN 89-020526. Volume 5, pp. 2728 - 2733.
^ Svensk-amerikanska bondkomiker Olle i Skratthult och Charlie un Widdn by Ulf Beijbom, (The Swedish Emigrant Institute of Vxsj, Sweden, 1973).
^ Seward Profile April 2005.
^ Nikolina: Early Scandinavian Bands And Entertainers (Minneapolis: Banjar Records, 1983).
^ From Sweden To America (Stockholm: Caprice Records, 1996).
^ Olle From Laughtersville (St. Paul: Great American History Theatre, 1992).
^ Gay Life In Dikanka (Lund, Sweden: Bakhll, 2000).
External links
Olle i Skratthult at Catfish's Closet - Scroll down and click on photograph of Olle i Skratthult.
Olle i Skratthult photos at The Minnesota Historical Society - Enter Skratthult in Keyword Search window.
Olle i Skratthult article in Swedish
Skratthult cover versions at Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project - Enter song title (no apostrophes) in Keyword Search window.
"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" sheet music at Indiana University - Enter I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles in Search window.
"The Jolly Coppersmith" sheet music at Indiana University - Enter The Jolly Coppersmith in Search window.
"Just Kiss Yourself Good-Bye" at Mississippi State University - Enter Just Kiss Yourself Good-Bye in All The Words window. Click on thumbnail image. Click on phrase Access this item.
"On The Banks Of The Wabash" at Duke University - Enter On The Banks Of The Wabash Far Away in Search window.
Fredrik August Dahlgren at Project Runeberg Cut title of poem from this article and paste in Search window.
Gustaf Frding at Project Runeberg Cut title of poem from this article and paste in Search window.
Zacharias Topelius at Project Runeberg Cut title of poem from this article and paste in Search window.
Gustaf Frding in English at The Internet Archive: Tre Trallande Jntor (Three Carolling Girls)
Zacharias Topelius in English at The Internet Archive: Rose-Marie p. 93
Categories: American comedians American comedy musicians American singers Columbia Records artists People from Vrmland RCA Victor Records artists Swedish Americans Swedish immigrants to the United States Vaudeville performers I am a professional writer from Components Electronic suppliers, which contains a great deal of information about electric pre shave , tomtom gps pda, welcome to visit!
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