Kathy English
Hello. I’m Kathy English, and I want to welcome you to Profiles and Stewardship, where my husband, Bill English, has conversations with business owners about how they integrate their role as a business owner with their faith in Jesus Christ. Today, Bill is talking with Alan Johnson, a Christian who has been in the entertainment industry for over 40 years. I think you’ll find their conversation to be helpful and enlightening as Alan talks about what projects he takes on and how he hears God’s voice in making those decisions. So sit back and learn as Bill and Allen talk in this Profiles in Stewardship episode.
Bill English
And welcome today. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. And I just want to thank you for joining us today. Bible and Business exists to help Christians in business integrate their leadership roles into their faith and to understand all that the Bible says about owning a business and leading in business. So again, thank you for joining us today. This episode is part of a growing series titled Profiles in Stewardship. These interviews are intended to illustrate what Christian stewardship looks like in the real world for Christian business owners and Christians who lead in business. So from time to time, I talk with business owners and business leaders about how they integrate their leadership role into their Christian faith and how their faith impacts how they lead in the real world. These profiles and stewardship interviews are unscripted. We broadcast live while we’re recording them. They are real and they are unedited. We only do one take of these interviews, so what you see is what really happened. Many of the topics I discussed in the series are also discussed in my book, A Christian Theology of Business Ownership and another book that I’ve written titled Biblical Wisdom for Business Leaders.
Bill English
Today I’m talking with Alan Johnson, who has been in the entertainment industry for well over 40 years. Alan has appeared in numerous times I’m sorry. Alan has appeared numerous times at the Old Log Theater in Excelsior, Minnesota, which is the longest continuously running Equity theater in the country. He received his training at the University of Minnesota and was part of the inaugural season at the Indiana Repertory Theater. While he was studying at the U, he played the lead role in Borstal Boy and directed by Abbey Theaters Thomas MCNA. During his years in Los Angeles, he was managing director of Actors Co op Theater Company, where he appeared in numerous productions like Becoming Memories, into the Woods, Pack of Lies and Light Up the sky. Allen has also directed numerous award winning productions, including the 1940s Radio Hour, for which he received the La. Drama Critics Circle award for direction. He was part of the ensemble of beyond the Fringe, which was directed by Paxton Whitehead at the La. Theater center and has appeared in numerous television shows including Night Court, the Young and the Restless, and Er. Film appearances include The Babe with John Goodman, Heat Wave with Blair Underwood, Thin Ice with Greg Canard and Alan Arkin, and most recently, Polygo and Abroad.
Bill English
Both, by the way, of those. Polygo as well as Abroad were filmed in northern Minnesota. His voice has been heard in numerous commercials and he was the voice of the vulture in the animated series Spiderman. When not acting or directing, alan travels across the country performing his one man comedy juggling act, which I have seen, and I would endorse that act. It’s a fun act to watch. Alan. Welcome to Profiles and stewardship. And welcome to Bible and business.
Alan Johnson
Thank you, Bill. It’s a blessing and a pleasure to be with you.
Bill English
I have been looking forward to this something first. Now, just in interest of full transparency, alan and I have been friends for, I don’t know, 20 years or more.
Alan Johnson
Oh, yeah. At least your wife was part of the Bridal company and my wife and my wedding. And as a matter of fact, I think, if I’m not mistaken, two of the bridesmaids were quite pregnant at the time of our wedding 25 years ago. And one of those bridesmaids was your wife.
Bill English
That’s right. And if I remember right, your wife was in our wedding, too, if I remember correctly.
Alan Johnson
That was before my time, I think.
Bill English
Well, I’ll still chase she was your wife, but yeah. So Alan and I have known each other for a long time and he and I were at a social event recently and he said, Bill, maybe we should talk about entertainment in your Bible and Business Profiles and Stewardship series. And I said, Boy, that’s a great idea. Let’s do it. So here we are today with Alan, and I’m just so appreciative that you’re here. Let’s go ahead and let me get started here. I’m just going to pull up a couple of things here. You’re an actor and an entertainer who is also a Christian, okay? You don’t view yourself as a Christian entertainer. You view yourself as an actor and an entertainer who is a Christian. Can you speak a little bit about that? Can you unpack that just a little bit?
Alan Johnson
Well, as you all remember, in Jesus time, they were fishermen, they were tax collectors, and they became followers of Christ. They had their profession, but first and foremost, their life was dedicated to Christ. And that’s the way I feel our lives should be, is that we are first and foremost Christians. Whatever we do with our lives should be influenced and directed by our Christian faith and by our walk with Christ. I sometimes equate it with a jar of water and we have some food coloring here. And this would be when we accept Christ as the Lord and Savior of our life, we add that particular aspect to our life. And what happens is as the sanctification process occurs and we let God inhabit literally all of our lives, that becomes the Christianity inhabits every aspect of our life. We don’t pull out our work life and our social life and our entertainment life. It’s all mixed together. So that when we’re out seeing films, when we’re working, christ inhabits every aspect of that. And I really pray that that happens when I’m doing a show, when I’m interacting with people. As a matter of fact, during the filming of Abroad, one of those films that you mentioned, the director had a pre audition, not audition, but costume fitting and a rehearsal before we started shooting the film.
Alan Johnson
And so I met him. We talked, we went over the script, we gave me some notes and we worked on that. And then we talked just casually and told him about my history and kind of how I met my wife, and that my dad was a pastor and was her pastor growing up. And it’s a marvelous story about how God intervenes and directs our lives. Well, later on in that conversation, he’s from Italy, Giovanni, and he said, Alan, I grew up Catholic in Italy and you are Protestant. What is the difference between Protestant and Catholic? And what I shared was that Christ has made a way for us to go directly to God. And so we’re in the beginning of filming, and I’m there on my first day. I was about two weeks on the set, and I saw him and said, I learned. How are you? I said, I’m good, Giovanni. How’s it going in the filming? We have some issues here and there. I said, I have been praying for the production and for you. And he said, oh, that’s good. So the next day we saw Breakfast. I said, I am praying for you and for the production and for the film, that it goes as well as could be hoped for and the way you want it.
Alan Johnson
He said. Good, Allen. Keep praying. Keep praying for me. And we developed a real close relationship, but that to me, is the Holy Spirit working and saying, here’s what you need to do with your life. This is a natural thing. So that’s an example of how Christ works.
Bill English
Not compartmentalizing our faith is so important. I call it God talk. If I refer to the Lord at church in the same situation, I should refer to the Lord in business, we don’t compartmentalize our faith. I think there is appropriate in business, at least there’s appropriate times to be wise about how we do our faith in the business world. We’re not always as open in the business world as we are maybe at church or with our friends in a social gathering, but that’s a little bit more about being wise as serpents and innocent as Dub, that kind of thing. So we are here today talking with Alan Johnson. You can reach him at his website. Allenjohnson.com we’re talking about Alan, his past, his history, about how entertainment and how we choose entertainment, how Alan chooses entertainment, about how he chooses his productions, about what it means to be a Christian in the very messy world, at least as I perceive it, the very messy world of entertainment. And you’re listening to a profile and stewardship broadcast here by Bible and Business. Now, for those who are watching, just so you know, this restream app that we’re using to do this live broadcast, if you enter a comment or a question in theory, that is supposed to come back and feedback to me here on my screen, and then we’ll be able to interact with you.
Bill English
So if you have a question or comment for Allen, go ahead and post that. Whether you’re watching at Facebook or Twitter or YouTube, just go ahead and do that. And also, just so people who watch this afterwards, I’m just coming off of a pretty nasty cold, and so I may have to mute and do a little bit of coughing, and I got a cough drop in my mouth right now, so hopefully you understand all that. Well, Alan, let’s get started. Let’s not start. Let’s move along. What are some of the scriptures that you rely on to help, you know when to take a role or a job or project and when not to?
Alan Johnson
Well, Bill, certainly the Holy Spirit is the guiding force in this scripture. Many scriptures that talk about what we have as gifts from God, spiritual gifts or gifts of entertainment or law or various things. And the Scripture is very plain about using those gifts for the glory of God. And also, there’s a passage in Joshua that says, as for me in my household, we will serve the Lord. Okay? It’s always important, and everybody knows this, who studies Scripture is to read the whole thing and read beforehand what is the context. So you’ve got who, what, and why. Who is it written for? What is it saying, and why is it saying that? So Joshua says, now fear the Lord, serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods of your ancestor worship. Serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Yes, Joshua says, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. And that has been one of my main verses. When I go into an audition, if I read a script, I’m saying, okay, who are we serving here?
Alan Johnson
Are we serving other gods? Are we promoting ideas or themes that may or may not be consistent with our faith? And there have been a number of times when I’ve seen a script. As a matter of fact, I had an audition several years ago in town here with the script, and I went and I read apart, and then I read the rest of the script kind of when I was at the audition, I didn’t feel comfortable with the subject matter of the script. It just didn’t sit well with me in my spirit. And I went to the director and I said, I don’t feel comfortable with this material. And I had known the director and worked with him and he said to me a very interesting thing. He said, I kind of thought you might say that. Which said to me that he kind of knew my foundational footing and the things that I want to do and things that I don’t feel I want to do. In that respect, I rely on the Holy Spirit. And when I feel a very uneasy spirit inside me if I don’t feel comfortable having my children or having friends see something.
Alan Johnson
And when I was part of the actors co op we looked at scripts to see where is the humanity? Where’s the sacrifice, forgiveness, healing, hope? Those were the types of themes that we chose. And there would be some actors there saying, well, why don’t we do a little David Mammoth or Sam Shepard or Why aren’t we like other theaters? Well, we had to explain that we are not like other theaters. We are a company of Christian actors. And so our threshold and our boundaries are different than the secular world. So rejoice always pray without ceasing that wonderful passage and thessalonians give thanks in all circumstances. Why? Because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit really is the guiding principle along with those passages for me as I choose projects and what I’m going to do.
Bill English
So let me ask this because I think I’ve always found it difficult, other than generally for the Scriptures to talk specifically about entertainment, consumption choices, right? We all choose to consume entertainment of one type or another. And so you as a professional in this business, it just seems to me that you have to rely on hearing the voice of God quite a bit as you’re reading through a script just to get a feel for this just isn’t really what God would have me to do. And so I’m just wondering this is a little bit of a tangential from our prep notes, but how do you hear the voice of God? How do you know it’s God talking to you?
Alan Johnson
Well, okay. For instance, here’s a good example. There’s a TV show out there called Ozark now award winning, highly critically acclaimed. And I watched some episodes and it was fascinating, well written, but the subject matter went into areas that it made me uncomfortable watching.
Bill English
By the way, I had the same reaction to Ozark.
Alan Johnson
Right.
Bill English
Kathy and I started to watch it and we didn’t watch it.
Alan Johnson
Yeah, I made the choice, as Joshua said, who I will serve. I made the choice that this is not something that I wanted to view myself or in our house. I made that choice that says nothing about the quality of the production or people who work on it or people who want to watch it. It is not a condemnation. It is a personal choice. And I think a lot of our lives, when people say, well, give you a labeling of being intolerant or other terms like that to try to silence you, basically what they’re saying is you don’t have the right to have a personal opinion about what you want to do with your life, with your choices, with your entertainment dollars. I tell you, there are some wonderful things out there. We are watching a series called Heartland. They have 15 seasons. It’s a wonderful, well written, really great series. Tim Mahoney has done some wonderful films on biblical realities and whether the Bible is true and accurate. And there’s tons of stuff there’s, of course, the Chosen and various other things that are just wonderful, great productions, well done with production values and so forth.
Alan Johnson
So I had an opportunity to read, to audition and to be cast in a show out in Los Angeles. It was directed by a very well known, prestigious director. And I got the casting call, I got the call to be cast in it, and then I read the entire script. It was my fault to begin with that I didn’t read the entire script before I agreed to be in the production. That, for an actor, I think is really important. But when I finally read the script, I did not feel comfortable with the subject matter. And I called the director, I said, I can’t be in this production. It’s not comfortable. To me, she was very upset. She was livid. Almost said, that Cliche, you’ll never work in this town again. Sure. And that was in Los Angeles. But shortly after that, I had to audition for the Actors co op Christian Theater Company. And I got cast. I mean, I got accepted into that company. So in one sense, it was very uncomfortable. But the Lord gave me an affirmation of a place where I could use my creative gifts for his glory. And eventually, the Actors Coop has become one of the top theaters critically acclaimed in Los Angeles, and yet keeping to the principles that we set out to do.
Bill English
You know, what I find is interesting about that actor’s Theater Co op is that it was run out of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, right?
Alan Johnson
Yes.
Bill English
Most churches wouldn’t see an Actor’s Co op as a valid ministry. But I’m glad Hollywood Press did. There’s a number of ways, and I’m just going to make a comment and then move on. I’m not going to dwell on this. There’s a lot of different things churches could do, and I know that each church has to understand what the Lord wants them to do. But just having your basic growth groups and Sunday school classes and other things, churches can be a lot more creative if they choose to be. Well, let’s move along just for a little bit here. By the way, we’re talking with Alan Johnson, who is a professional entertainer and a Christian who happens to also be an actor and an entertainer. And you can reach him at his website. Alanjohnson.com, I want to thank you for joining us. And for those who are watching online, you are always welcome to submit a comment or a question. Comments I can’t really do much with, but unless there’s some content in it but questions, feel free to submit some questions and we’ll pose them over to Alan here. So one of the other things that I just wanted to ask you about is this piece, and you and I talked about it in our prep show.
Bill English
Christians have a difficult time knowing what entertainment to consume, and we’ve already talked about this generally, and you said that it’s a personal choice, it’s informed by how you hear the voice of God and that kind of thing. But it’s also about are there any particular scriptures? So one scripture that comes to my mind is Philippians four. Whatever is true, noble, right, just pure. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. When I start to apply that Alan to my own life, I’ll use an example. One of the movie series that Kathy and I like to watch are the Bourne series. We like Jason Bourne and there’s a lot of violence in those. I kind of think about that sometimes and I wonder, well, should we be consuming the Born series? Should we be consuming the Oceans 1112 and 13 series, which is to me is I enjoy that series, too. Now, we stay away from heavy profanity if the Lord’s name is used. Other types of profanity don’t bother me. They do bother Kathy. And we stay away from skin. We don’t watch stuff with skin in it. But can you talk just a little bit more about people, about how to consume paint?
Alan Johnson
Bill and as my family would attest to, I am right there with you. And Born. I am a born junkie. And I don’t know how many times we’ve been sitting in the living room with a family and they’re saying, well, what should we watch tonight? And I said, well, we could always watch a Born. Oh, dad. Oh, dad. But I feel like it’s a smart, well written series of films. And yes, there’s violence in it, but I agree with you. The assaulting of my spirit by language, by really gratuitous violence, by, like you said, skin or sex, those things are things that are across the line for me. And I believe we have, in many ways, transferred that to our children without being dictatorial. And I think that what we need to do as parents is not just say no, but try to find an alternative and something that you can present as something positive. There’s a song in Fantastic that the two fathers sing, and it’s very appropriate in parenting, I think. And the song is they did it because we said no. And the two fathers went back and forth, why do the kids put beans in their ear?
Alan Johnson
Why do the kids do this? They do it because we say no. And so I think it’s very important for somebody who wants their kids to grow up with a good set of values, a Judeo Christian, a Christ centered set of values, that you have alternatives, that you have things that you can watch together. And that’s one of the things that when I choose a project, I say to myself, is this something that we can watch together as a family? That is one of my guiding principles. And yes, there’s language around and you’re not going to get away totally from that. You can in certain situations. But there are projects out there in movies and so forth that have a certain amount of language that you yourself would not use, but that are inherent in those characters. And if they’re authentic to the characters and to the script and so forth and that there is some redeeming value in there, then those are the projects that I’m looking for, a smart, well written script. I’m looking for good, well layered, three dimensional characters. I am looking for a little bit of drama. I look for the drama in the comedy, and I look for the comedy in the drama when I am reading a script and it’s a drama where is some generic and moments that come from authenticity that lighten things up.
Alan Johnson
So those are some of the things that I look for. But the Holy Spirit is going to lead you and you’re not going to make 100% of the right decisions 100% of the time, but you certainly try the best you can to make your decisions based on biblical and the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
Bill English
Yeah, I like that drama in comedy, comedy and drama thing that for whatever reason, one of my most favorite movies of all time is Draft Day with Kevin Costner. And the reason that I like I’ve probably watched it well over a dozen times. And the reason that I like it so much is because his character is so authentic and there’s some language in there, but it all makes sense, right? The language makes sense given the environment that he’s in. And the other piece that I really like about it is that I think it’s one of the best movies to teach leadership. This guy has to work for a difficult boss, he has difficult coworkers, and he’s forced into making a bad decision that he has to clean up. And he’s held responsible for both the bad decision and cleaning it up. And I look at that and I go, gee, if that isn’t business today, if that isn’t leadership in business today, I don’t know what is. Yeah, and that’s a movie that came to my mind when you were talking about that.
Alan Johnson
Well, another movie too is remember the Titans with they’ve got so many different aspects of life there. You’ve got the racial aspect, you’ve got the leadership, you’ve got the young people and so forth. And so there’s great lessons to be learned in those types of movies in life. And when you can watch them with your family and discuss them afterwards, or discuss them a week later, that makes it all worthwhile.
Bill English
So, not to get off too far on this, I should probably not do this, but I’m over here. I got a second screen over here to my left. And the reason I keep looking over there is first I was looking at my logo software trying to find the Joshua passage, and now I’m looking at my prime membership and all the stuff that I like. And it’s really interesting what we got there. So you choose projects by reading the script, by hearing the voice of God, by applying the scriptures that you’ve talked about to your situation, and then you follow the Lord. Have you ever taken on a project where you knew you shouldn’t have and you went ahead and did it anyways? And how did that turn out for you?
Alan Johnson
Well, I mentioned that one, that I accepted the role and then read the script and bowed out of that one. We had a production at the Actors Co op, and the language in it was really abusive, and it was very hard on the soul and the ears. Well, we wanted to do it because it had a number of great qualities to it. But we contacted the playwright and asked if we could remove some of the language, and the answer was absolutely not.
Bill English
I can’t imagine a playwright doing that.
Alan Johnson
No word may be changed. We had cast the production and I was in it, and I was part of the committee that chose that particular production, and we had to pull the plug on it. A lot of people were very upset in the cast who were looking forward to doing that production, and quite a well known production. I don’t want to mention it because I think it doesn’t serve a purpose at this point. Okay. I think that you always have certain regrets. I don’t have one particular thing that I can point to that I can say I wish I never did that. There have been productions that I think the quality or my particular performance was maybe not as good as I would have liked to have had it. But those are never going to hit a home run every time you come up to bat. And you have to realize that and move on to the next project, learn from that and then move on. So that’s, in a sense, how I would answer your question. Excuse me.
Bill English
All right, buddy. It’s unscripted, right? Live and unedited. That’s how we like it. Well, for those who are watching, go ahead and post a question, if you have it. You know, Alan, the spirit leads us right throughout our lives and I think he leads us into different kind of macro seasons, as it were. I’m thinking a little bit here, Bob Buford’s book Half Time, where our earlier years are spent on success and our later years are spent on significance. As you look, because you and I are both playing the back nine here. We have most of our life behind us rather than in front of us. And so as you look at where God has you today and kind of the work you’re doing, how is he helping you kind of leave behind and help up and coming actors and entertainers? What’s going on there for you?
Alan Johnson
Well, I am semi retired. I’m still performing. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed was out at seaver’s corn maze in shock. Cape. I have been working with them for a number of years, five, six years now. In the fall I go down and juggle. Juggling is one of those skills that I learned when I was singing at the old Camelot restaurant in a nightclub group. And I learned how to juggle and practiced between shows each night and eventually put together my own juggling act, worked Valley Fair and then the Renaissance Fair, and then eventually cruise ships and so forth. But it was one of those skills that I thought, well, I can probably do this as long as I can do it now. I’m out there 3 hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays in the fall. And it’s a ministry. I did handyman work for 20 years. I help people with their houses and fixed up their apartments or their rooms or painted or fixed their electric or whatever. And I considered that my ministry. Everything I do, I really believe that God has me there for a reason. And it’s a ministry now that includes this juggling out at Seavers 3 hours.
Alan Johnson
And I’ll get little crowds, I’ll get a lot of families out there and I’ll interact with the children, young, young people, and throw a ball to them, they’ll throw it back and you know, it’s just a great way to bring a little joy to those people’s lives. And I feel like I can do this for, man, I don’t know, another ten years or maybe I’m still active in these two films that I worked on in the last couple of years. It was a joy to do that. So mine later years. Now that’s very interesting that you said success and then significance. I believe that my significance is coming forward in the fact that I have an opportunity, maybe because of what I’ve done in the past, that I have some credibility that people will listen to me in a way that I can say I hope you have a blessed day. God bless you. I went out to lunch with a director that directed one of the films that I did a number of years ago and. I was out in Los Angeles. We went out to lunch, and as we sat down and I said, I’d like to pray for the meal, and she said to me, oh, no, not a chance.
Alan Johnson
I invited you here for lunch. I’m going to pay for the meal. I said, I’d like to pay for the meal. And she said, oh, a little bit.
Bill English
Of a difference there.
Alan Johnson
Okay, sure, that’s fine. So I just a little prayer for the meal. And when that’s appropriate, like you said earlier, sometimes maybe it’s not appropriate, but when you feel the Holy Spirit leading you, a little prayer before a lunch or a dinner is a very natural expression of your faith, and it is of mine. And I’ve used that a number of times. And my family was out to dinner, and my theatrical agent was somewhere in the restaurant. I didn’t know she was there. And we just bought our heads before we not a big deal. Just bowed our heads and said our grace, and then we had our meal. And then later on, several weeks later, my agent said, I saw you at the restaurant. I was really quite impressed that you prayed before your meal. And it made an impact on me. So these are things that we can do, and I think later in life, Bill, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think you care so much about what people think of you as you did when you were 30. You have a little more confidence, you have a little more tires, have gone a little wear, and you’ve had some success, and now you’re more natural and more comfortable in your own skin, and you can allow the spirit to express itself.
Bill English
We’re more comfortable in our call, and our call is more mature. We understand as we grow closer to the Lord and we approach the day when we’re going to leave this earth and go see him face to face, we there’s just a maturity and a calmness that comes about on our call that you often don’t have. It’s rare that you have it in your 20s or 30s. We’re talking here with Alan Johnson, who is a Christian and also an actor and an entertainer. You can reach him at his website allenjohnson.com. While I’m talking about this next topic, if those who are watching online would like to submit a movie line and see if they can stump Alan and I as to which movie it came from. So send in a line, one line, and we’ll see if we can guess the movie. But I know, like I said, this is unscripted, right? But you’re an example of somebody that I really love and that you’re going to work well into what Americans call retirement age. You’re going to work a long time, and I plan to as well. I’m 62, and I plan to work at least another 20 years.
Bill English
This whole idea of retirement at 67, we get our Social Security benefits and we’re kind of done. Working is not a biblical one. And I just want to say thanks for taking the time to continue to work and to minister. Because the younger people need in this society need the older people, even though they don’t know it. The younger people need us in our churches and in our communities. They may not know it, but they need us and they need our presence. And our presence can be very helpful to them at key points in their lives. And so I just want to say thanks for keeping working and not retiring. Thanks for going to Shock A and doing what you do.
Alan Johnson
I think I was good friends with George Burns for the last ten years of his life, and I would go in and see him and helped him with a book that he was writing, a picture for his book. And he was very gracious to me, but he’s one of those people. And people ask me, was he Christian? I said, not that I know of. I never say no. When someone asks me, is so and so a Christian? I don’t want to say no. I don’t know what happened between them and God and between life here on earth and the end of life on earth. So if I don’t know, I will say, not that I know of. But George worked well into his ninety s and yeah, he did, he worked a long time. Yeah. And he said to me one time, he says, fall in love with what you do for a living, and that would be my advice to young people. And he said, I’d do what I’m doing now, I’d be do it for no money. But he said under his breath, he said, don’t tell them that. He was a sharp cookie.
Alan Johnson
And Louis Amperini was one of my favorite.
Bill English
I was going to ask about Louie.
Alan Johnson
As well, one of my favorite in all the world. I got a chance to know Louie because we had an office right down from each other at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. And if you don’t remember, Louie was the subject of the movie and the book Unbroken was the world champion. Miler went into the army in World War II, army Air Corps, crashed in the Pacific, 47 days in a life raft, and then got captured by the Japanese and spent over two years as a prisoner of war, being tortured and beaten almost constantly. But Louie had a great outlook on life. I mean, I’d see him on campus, I saw him one time with a cast on his arm and I said, Louie, what happened? He said, I was skateboarding with the boys here in the plaza and I fell off my skateboard. But boy, he was a great example of somebody that kept that spirit of God and the spirit of life alive. And it was a pleasure to know him.
Bill English
You also knew It’s a Wonderful Life.
Alan Johnson
Oh, Jimmy Stewart.
Bill English
Jimmy Stewart. You also knew Jimmy Stewart. Tell us a little bit about your friendship with Jimmy Stewart.
Alan Johnson
Personally. I met him once or twice. And the thing that I was at a showing of Bing Crosby films the other night, I have a good friend, his name is Bob DeFlores. Bob is a film historian, archivist, and knew Bing very well, was a curator for all of Bing Crosby’s family films. And anyway, I was talking to someone. I said, yeah, I knew Jimmy Stewart a little bit. I said, I was at a film conference and I had a picture of his and I had him autograph it for me. But the person I worked with at the Actor’s Co Op, she had her hair done at the same salon that Jimmy Stewart’s wife Gloria had her hair done. And so one day she had me call up this Gary who did her hair and who also worked on Gloria Stewart’s hair, Jimmy Stewart’s. And I called her up, I called Gary there. I just wanted to know if she was there, you see? And he came back. Just tell her I called a year later. And so my friend was there to meet him, have her hair done, and they somehow shared the fact that Jimmy had called for Gloria and joined.
Bill English
That’s a fun story. So let’s see. Guess the movie. Here’s the line. Are you ready? The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. It’s got to be the Jimmy Stewart movie, isn’t it?
Alan Johnson
No, it is not.
Bill English
So I don’t know what movie that’s from. Do you know?
Alan Johnson
Yes, I do. That is Will Ferrell’s line to Zoe de Chanel in the movie Elf.
Bill English
I’ve never watched that all the way through. Kathy likes it.
Alan Johnson
But here’s a wonderful movie for our families to watch, especially at Christmas time. But it is a great movie. Well written, smart, funny. There’s some drama in it, great acting performances, and I believe it’s a classic. It’s a modern classic to be watched at Christmas time.
Bill English
So another classic I like to watch, that I don’t watch often, but is the ultimate Gift with, you know, these nickels.
Alan Johnson
I don’t it’s interesting that you mention that, Bill, because when people are looking for content to watch as a family, a very good friend of mine named Michael Cybel directed it to The Ultimate Gift. He also directed One Night with the King, which is the story of Esther. He also directed a number of Billy Graham films, worldwide, pictures films, and one that I can highly recommend, which just recently came out, called The Mulligan. And really, Hat Boon is in that. And Michael Seibold directed that film as well. So he has contributed a number of really good quality projects to family viewing. And I would highly recommend all of those films.
Bill English
Okay, well, that’s that’s a good recommendation films that I have enjoyed over the years. The Princess Bride apollo 13 oh, yeah.
Alan Johnson
Which very good.
Bill English
Which is just very good. And as you and I talked about earlier, the Born in the Oceans series, The King’s Speech is just an incredibly well done movie.
Alan Johnson
Yes. And well deserved. Academy award for Colin Firth.
Bill English
And Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln. He did an amazing job. Every time I think of Lincoln now, I think of Daniel Day Lewis. Right?
Alan Johnson
Yes. I would say one of our unknown. And yet he’s won a number of Academy Awards. One for my left foot, I believe he won, for there should be blood or something like that. He’s a wonderful actor. Fabulous actor. And I recommend any Jimmy Stewart film. He is my favorite actor. You look at the breadth of his work from all the Alfred Hitchcock films, rear Window, Vertigo. You look at the westerns that he did with The Man Who Shot Liberty, Valence and other westerns and then the Capra films. It’s a Wonderful Life, mr Smith goes to Washington. There is a tremendous amount of work that Jimmy Stewart has done that is just top quality. It’s also a great book, if you’re looking to read a book called Mission. And it speaks about it’s written about Jimmy Stewart’s war experiences as a bomber pilot in World War II. And, boy, it has every aspect that you would hope to have in a book. It’s a page turner and really quite interesting to read his experiences. And he came back from World War II and It’s a Wonderful Life, and Capra had to convince him to do that movie because he didn’t think that people were ready for that kind of movie or he himself, emotionally.
Alan Johnson
Was ready to do that kind of movie with the experiences and the emotional trauma that he felt in World War II and those bomber things.
Bill English
Wow. Isn’t that something I see over your left shoulder there? The 1940s Radio Hour, the poster behind you. Tell us a little bit about that. You won an award for that.
Alan Johnson
Well, you happen to have in your life maybe a handful of experiences as an actor or director that really rise to the top. And this is, if not the top, it’s really close to the top, that production. First of all, I read it, and it didn’t read on the page like it was the exciting event that it was going to be. But here again, I felt the Holy Spirit saying, this is better than it reads. It felt like it had more life and depth than just a simple, sweet musical. Because here again, with a musical, you want some meat. You don’t want it just all light and fluffy and nothing else there. You want there to be some substance to it. And I really felt that there was that. Now, Walton Jones, who wrote the 1940s Radio Hour, had done previous productions at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. I believe even excuse me, even at Yale, I believe Meryl Streep did the first reading or first production of that musical when she was at Yale. I cast it with probably the most important thing in directing is casting. And if you can cast the right people, it makes your job a lot easier.
Alan Johnson
And I cast an incredible group of people to do that production. And it takes place in the early 1940s, 1942, in a small wattage radio station in New York City. And it’s about the characters and the production of that radio show. And these characters all had separate second jobs. It was not a real pain, it wasn’t real glamorous, but the person, they loved what they did, and they loved each other. And we had Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller and wonderful songs, and there was sound effects, and there was tap dancing, and you can imagine a full production number. Well, it’s a radio show. The only people who see that production are small audience.
Bill English
Having been in radio for a long time, I know that we don’t tap dance in the studio.
Alan Johnson
Yeah. So it had every aspect of a great show, and we ran it for a total of nine months, we ran it, which is unheard of in Los Angeles, a small theater. We actually did it in one theater. We opened our second theater with a continuation of this production. And Walton Jones came to me. He saw it a number of times. He said to me, alan, I’m thinking about writing a sequel to this, and I want your theater and you to do the world premiere of this.
Bill English
Wow.
Alan Johnson
That never got off the ground. But when I went to the award show okay, so we’re at the awards, and I said to myself, lord, if you bless me with being able, if they call my name, I will acknowledge you. If I’m acknowledged by earthly people, I’m going to acknowledge you. And I went up there in the first few words out of my mouth, I want to first thank my lord and savior Jesus Christ for the blessing that he was given to me. Well, there was titters. There were laughter around the room. And in the audience was one of the main writers of the arts section of the Los Angeles times. And several days after I received that award, and that award is right back there, that’s there Los Angeles circle. So a few days after that, she called our office and she said, I was at the award show, heard what you said. I’m interested in doing a big feature story on you and your theater company for the Los Angeles times entertainment section. And so she came out, interviewed me, and it was a big spread that featured our theater. One of the captions said, the actors co op and their coreligionists find faith, hope, and good reviews.
Alan Johnson
I’ve never heard the word coreligionist.
Bill English
I’ve never heard that either.
Alan Johnson
But I tell you, Bill, it was a real blessing to have that. The very next year, we won the award for Best Smaller Theater in Los Angeles for continued excellence. And on my website I have me holding that what’s called a Margaret Harford Award. And Jack Lemmon won a lifetime achievement award that night. And I got a chance to grab the award and grab him with his award. And I said, Can I get a picture with you? And so on my website I have a picture with Jack Lemon, who is truly one of my along with Jimmy Stewart, one of my favorite actors of all time. What a great actor. So the 1940s Radio Hour has a very special place in my heart and in my spirit. And God really blessed not only me, but the theater and the reputation of the theater from that production.
Bill English
So we have been talking with Alan Johnson and you can get a hold of him@allenjohnson.com. Alan, I want to thank you for being with us today. Just one final thought for the audience today.
Alan Johnson
First of all, Bill, thank you for offering me the opportunity to be with you and it’s a pleasure to be here. I know you’re doing some great work in your podcast, in your book that you’ve written about being a good steward of the resources that God has given to you. And I think that for me, I think that as we as Christians need to be mindful of doing the best we can with what God has given us, whether it’s the gifts and the talents, the financial blessings and things, and to really give back to the Lord whatever we do. Be faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. First Peter 410 to remember that and pray that you have the opportunity to share that with others.
Bill English
Thank you very much. I was just writing on a new book. I’m writing a book for mid level and upper level managers who work in for profit businesses who have really difficult bosses. And I’m using the Life of Daniel as my example because he served four difficult kings and yet maintained his faith and his faithfulness to God throughout that. What I was writing this morning is that God gifts us uniquely and in our unique gifting. That’s where we find our calling. Let’s just be faithful with what God’s given to us. Let’s not pine away for somebody else’s gifting. Let’s not try to be somebody else. I could never be Alan Johnson, I could never be Jimmy Stewart, and it would be foolish if I tried. So let’s hold to our gifting.
Alan Johnson
One last point, Bill. When I talk to young actors, young people trying to start out in the acting or show business, we have fingerprints that are unique to us. That’s God’s way of saying you are unique. There’s only one of you. And for every audition that I don’t get a role well, the next audition, I’m going to be maybe exactly right for that because of who God made me, what I look like, what I sound like. Those are the things tangibles that casting directors and directors look at for various roles. And the one part you may not be right for the next part because of who God made you to be and the unique qualities that you have, that will be the way and the reason why you will get the part the next time.
Bill English
Yeah, very true. We’re going to have to leave it there, Alan. Our hour is up. I want to thank everyone who has stayed with us and watched this broadcast today. Thank you so much for joining. So again, if you want to get a hold of Alan Johnson, you can do so through his website@allendashohnson.com. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. Thank you for being with us today and I hope to see you on another profile in stewardship coming up soon. Take care and God bless. Have a good day.