The other day, someone mentioned Osa Johnson, and I realized I had never read any of her books or seen any of their videos. Every comment I have seen about them has been very favorable and they apparently have a great reputation. I went to the museum website, and was really impressed by their B&W photography. They have a deal where you get all their videos plus Snows of Kilamanjaro and King Soloman's Mines for around $50, so I popped. They came in today only two days later.

I just watched their first movie, the silent one called Simba. I was really stunned. While it was interesting and the photography was good, in my opinion, Osa hunting was a total hoax. In this movie, she is shown killing four times; a charging bull elephant, two different charging rhinos, and a charging lion. They looked ludicrous while watching, so I went back and watched all the scenes in ultra slow motion on the DVD.

In the elephant segment, the elephant is shown, Osa is shown beside the camera raising a large bore rifle, she shoots and then the elephant is shown dead, with natives climbing on it. The problem is that Osa raises the rifle, doesn't cheek the stock, closes both eyes and then shoots. She is engulfed in a cloud of thick smoke (looks like BP) and the rifle absolutely doesn't recoil one inch, either up or back.

With the first rhino, we see the rhino, see Osa, she raises a 405 and fires, then we see the rhino go down.

On the next rhino, it charges, she raises the 405, fires, and we then switch to the rhino being upended. In this case, the 405 recoils quite a bit. However, a slow motion look reveals that she never pulls the trigger and the hammer is still cocked after the shot.

The lion charge is the same as the first rhino; see lion, see Osa fire, see dead lion.

I then stuck in the video of I Married Adventure, which was put together from all their previous videos. The first kill scene on this one appears to be from the films shot for their first movie, although it doesn't appear in that film. She is again using the bolt action big bore. Again, we see the animal, we see her shoot with her eyes closed, and we then see the animal down. Again, the is a lot of smoke and absolutely no recoil from a large bore rifle.

From my observation, I can only conclude that at least during their early years, someone was shooting the animals and she was making shots for the film while shooting blanks.The fake recoil sot without firing the gun looked ridiculous. The argument could be made that they were recreated for effect, but if they did that and she was an experienced shot, I don't think they would have bothered with blank rounds and I don't think she would have automatically closed her eyes while shooting.

I haven't watched the other videos yet, but at this point, I would have to cry FRAUD loudly. Has anyone else watched these videos closely? Am I wrong or is their reputation built solely on their own writings? Some of the photography is really good, and would have been quite dangerous to get, but my feeling is that the whole Osa thing was a show biz scam, based on my own look at their videos.

I have not seen their films, but I am no fan of Osa and Martin Johnson -- and not just because they provoked charges just to get photos of little Osa killing dangerous animals up close.

Their patron, George Eastman of Kodak fame, was a dedicated trophy hunter. They had no problem taking his money, but they (especially Osa) knocked sport hunting at every opportunity in their books and (I'm told) on their lecture tours.

In my book that makes them hypocrites.

As for their movies, I can see why they may have filmed Osa "shooting" after the fact. Martin kept his primitive camera on the animals while Osa shot. Her acting was added during editing. I have no problem with that.

Art S.,I saw the part when she confronts and shoots a rhino from about 50-100yds offhand in the grass with what appeared to be a double rifle with open sights.I took it for being real and was amazed at the shooting ability of the lady.After I read your post I now question the whole thing.If it is a fake then it is dangerously misleading.

I believe there are several scenes in different movies that show her dropping a rapidly approaching rhino with both her and the rhino in view at the same time. Certainly some of the scenes on some movies were "re-created"--just as they are for every TV hunting show, but she had to be one gutsy lady.

Interesting coincidence, Michael Petrov just posted a photo of her on the doublegun.com forums.



Bre nt

I read all the Johnson books when in high school and was completely taken with them. They must have not been TOO anti hunting as they did nothing but whet my apetite for going to Africa to hunt. An ambition that was carried for over 50 years before it became fact. I never saw one of their movies so can't remark on whether they were staged or not, but the only thing I remember about the Robert Ruark movie being discussed on this forum was one exceptionally long (to me) shot with a double rifle. Of the two she was the more accompolished pilot and did most of the flying except for ferry flights where they both had to fly. All in all a very remarkable lady according to all I have read.

I have never seen their movies, except in brief excerpts on television over the years. Thanks Art S. for the report.

Like Bill Quimby, I have never been a fan of the Johnsons because of the hypocrisy that Bill has noted. For them to have done what they did, and then come out publicly as such strong anti-sport-hunters, is to me unforgivable.

Their photography is incredibly good, though, and I may someday overcome my distaste at their anti-hunting politics enough to buy one of their films.

Art S., please let us know if you see any unstaged shots in any of the movies of what could be Osa actually killing a charging dangerous animal in the same shot, in real time.

zimbabwe,
Speaking of their flying, who wouldn't have liked to fly across Africa in one of these? It is a model of one of their planes located in their museum in Chanute, Kansas



Some other photos of collections inside the museum: