In that role he returned to Sweden in 1909 and during a six-month tour gathered the songs, stories and jokes he would later use on stage in America.

[2] Back in America Peterson adopted the persona of Olle i Skratthult and began performing on the Scandinavian-language vaudeville circuit.

[3][4] 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.

Olle was generally not in the featured work but appeared between acts in olios, during which he told far-fetched stories[5] and sang diverting songs.

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.

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.

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.

Instrumentals were credited to Olle i Skratthults Luffarekapell, Hjalmar Peterson's Hobo Orchestra and to other similar names.

Among the session players were country music singer Carson Robison on guitar and Arvid Franzen on accordion.

[14] The most important of these were Lars Bondeson, F. A. Dahlgren, Gustaf Fröding, David Hellström, Jeremias i Tröstlösa, Jödde i Göljaryd, Skånska Lasse, Anna Myrberg, Emil Norlander, Kalle Nämdeman, Ernst Rolf, Göran Svenning and Fred Winter.

Barndomshemmet (My childhood home), which his wife Olga performed, was an adaptation of On the banks of the Wabash, the state song of Indiana.

Just kiss yourself good-bye in Swedish became Petters olycksaliga frieri (Peter's unlucky marriage proposal).

Just kiss yourself good-bye was a so-called Coon song, but its racial stereotypes were absent from the Swedish version.

In 1928 he recorded the folk song Jag gick mig ut en sommerdag (I went out one summer day).

[15] Nikolina is the tragicomic story of a couple, whose desire for romantic happiness is thwarted by the girl's autocratic father.

An English version, recorded by Slim Jim and the Vagabond Kid (Ernest and Clarence Iverson), introduced the song to the rest of America.

[18] Nikolina was inducted for 2020 into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress where songs that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" are selected for preservation.

In the late 19th century Cedar Avenue became known as "Snoose Boulevard", a nickname often given to the main street in Scandinavian communities.

The event, which celebrated the area's Scandinavian past, featured the music, food, and arts of the immigrants who had once lived there.

In conjunction with the festival the Swedish-born singer Anne-Charlotte Harvey recorded three albums of folk tunes, emigrant ballads, hymns, waltzes and comic songs.

[21][22] Harvey's albums, produced by the renowned ethnomusicologist Maury Bernstein, included twelve songs from Olle's repertoire.

Banjar Records, a label based in the Twin Cities, released one song by Olle and two by his Hobo Orchestra in 1983.

The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research had three of his songs on its album "From Sweden to America", which was released as an LP in 1981 and as a CD in 1996.

Recorded in Sweden and the United States between 1917 and 1980, the collection had songs by Olle i Skratthult, Olga Lindgren, Gustav Fonandern, Lydia Hedberg, Ragnar Hasselgren and Anne-Charlotte Harvey.

Twenty years after the first Snoose Boulevard Festival the Great American History Theatre of St.Paul paid tribute to Hjalmar Peterson with its 1992 production "Olle From Laughtersville".

It is his dearest wish to devote all of his time to the theater instead of the current situation where he carries mortar one day and appears on stage the next.