[1] O&J were given contracts by Warner Bros. in 1930 to appear as the comic relief in a number of musicals including Oh, Sailor Behave (1930), Gold Dust Gertie (1931) and a lavish Technicolor version of Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931).

[citation needed] Their greatest triumph was as the stars and producers of Hellzapoppin, a zany Broadway revue, which opened at the 46th Street Theater on September 22, 1938, and ran for a record 1,404 performances.

Full of outrageous gags played on stooges planted in the audience (one winner of a so-called raffle had a block of ice placed in his lap) as well as indignities inflicted on actual paying customers, it became a smash hit despite a lukewarm critical reception, thanks in part to the influence of newspaper columnist and radio personality Walter Winchell.

Assisted by Marx Brothers screenwriter Nat Perrin, Olsen and Johnson used the film as an opportunity to satirize Hollywood as well as score some impressive riffs on filmmaking convention.

Hellzapoppin', following their string of earlier failures, was then followed in turn by Crazy House, which was then followed by the slick Ghost Catchers, with most of the wildness confined to the comics' nightclub scenes.