Editing Edwin C. Johnson

{{Short description|American politician (1884–1970)}}
{{Other people|Edwin Johnson}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Ed Johnson
|image        = Edwin Johnson.jpg
|order1       = 26th and 34th [[Governor of Colorado]]
|term_start1  = January 11, 1955
|term_end1    = January 8, 1957
|lieutenant1  = Stephen McNichols
|predecessor1 = [[Daniel I. J. Thornton]]
|successor1   = [[Stephen McNichols]]
|term_start2  = January 10, 1933
|term_end2    = January 1, 1937 
|lieutenant2  = Ray Herbert Talbot
|predecessor2 = [[Billy Adams (politician)|Billy Adams]]
|successor2   = [[Ray Herbert Talbot]]
|jr/sr3       = United States Senator
|state3       = [[Colorado]]
|term_start3  = January 3, 1937
|term_end3    = January 3, 1955
|predecessor3 = [[Edward P. Costigan|Edward Costigan]]
|successor3   = [[Gordon Allott]]
|office4      = 25th [[List of lieutenant governors of Colorado|Lieutenant Governor of Colorado]]
|term_start4  = January 13, 1931
|term_end4    = January 10, 1933
|governor4    = [[Billy Adams (politician)|Billy Adams]]
|predecessor4 = [[George Milton Corlett]]
|successor4 = [[Ray Herbert Talbot]]
|office5 = Member of the [[Colorado House of Representatives]]
|term5 = 1923–1931
|birth_name=Edwin Carl Johnson
|birth_date  = January 1, 1884
|birth_place = [[Scandia, Kansas|Scandia]], [[Kansas]], U.S.
|death_date  = {{death date and age|1970|5|30|1884|1|1}}
|death_place = [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], U.S.
|resting_place=[[Fairmount Mausoleum (Denver, Colorado)|Fairmount Mausoleum]]
|party       = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]
|signature   = EdwinJohnson Signature.png
}}
'''Edwin Carl Johnson''' (January 1, 1884 – May 30, 1970) was an American politician of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] who served as both [[governor of Colorado|governor]] of and [[U.S. senator]] from the [[U.S. state|state]] of [[Colorado]].

==Background==
Johnson was born in [[Scandia, Kansas|Scandia]] in [[Republic County, Kansas|Republic County]] in northern [[Kansas]]. As a child, he moved with his family to Elsie, Perkins County, Nebraska and then to [[Lincoln, Nebraska|Lincoln]], [[Nebraska]]. Johnson attended Lincoln High School under the tutelage of [[William Jennings Bryan]], who was serving as a substitute teacher. After graduation in 1903, Johnson pursued his dream of becoming a railroad man, and after numerous positions became a train dispatcher/telegrapher at [[Fairmont, Nebraska|Fairmont]] in [[Fillmore County, Nebraska|Fillmore County]] in southeastern Nebraska. In 1909, Johnson contracted [[tuberculosis]] and was advised to relocate to Colorado,  where the climate was believed helpful in his medical situation. After recovering from the disease he settled together with his wife near [[Craig, Colorado]].<ref>https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Edwin%20Johnson.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016184508/https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Edwin%20Johnson.pdf |date=October 16, 2020 }} {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

==Career==
Beginning in 1923, Johnson served in the [[Colorado House of Representatives]] for four terms. He was [[Lieutenant Governor of Colorado|lieutenant governor]] from 1931 to 1933.  He represented Colorado for three terms in the [[United States Senate]] from 1937 until 1955, during which time from 1937 to 1940 he was an intraparty critic of the [[New Deal]] policies of [[U.S. President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].<ref>David M. Jordan, ''FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944'' ([[Bloomington, Indiana|Bloomington]]: [[Indiana University Press]], 2011), p. 276, {{ISBN|978-0-253-35683-3}}</ref> Johnson served as the [[List of Governors of Colorado|26th and 34th]] [[Governor of Colorado|governor]] of Colorado from January 10, 1933 until January 1, 1937 and from January 11, 1955 until January 8, 1957.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-01-13 |title=Edwin Carl Johnson |url=https://www.nga.org/governor/edwin-carl-johnson/ |access-date=2023-10-15 |website=National Governors Association}}</ref> He opposed FDR’s [[New Deal]] policies.<ref name= DB/>

===Ingrid Bergman incident===
He was perhaps best known for presenting a speech on March 14, 1950, on the Senate floor, criticizing the extramarital affair of actress [[Ingrid Bergman]], who at the time was married to Petter Lindström. Bergman's affair with Italian director [[Roberto Rossellini]] became a [[cause célèbre]] as a result of Johnson's speech, forcing her to relocate to Europe for several years. Johnson then proposed a bill where movies would be licensed based on the perceived morality of the actors/actresses and stated that Bergman “had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage,” and called her “a powerful influence for evil.”

Prior to the discovery of her affair, Ingrid Bergman had been Johnson’s favorite actress. He felt that he had been deceived by the incident, and wished to ban her from any future Hollywood productions.<ref name= DB>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/21/when-congress-slut-shamed-ingrid-bergman|title=When Congress Slut-Shamed Ingrid Bergman|first=Marlow|last=Stern|newspaper=The Daily Beast|date=November 21, 2015|via=www.thedailybeast.com}}</ref>

Bergman returned to [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] in the 1956 blockbuster film ''[[Anastasia (1956 movie)|Anastasia]]''. In 1972, [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Charles H. Percy]] of [[Illinois]] entered an apology into the ''[[Congressional Record]]'' for Johnson’s attack, which had been made on Bergman twenty-two years earlier.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/29/archives/ingrid-bergman-gets-apology-for-senate-attack.html|title=Ingrid Bergman Gets Apology for Senate Attack (Published 1972)|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 29, 1972|access-date=October 6, 2020|archive-date=March 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315211212/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/29/archives/ingrid-bergman-gets-apology-for-senate-attack.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Atomic bombs===
Johnson is also known for the alternative he presented to mankind in November 1945: "God Almighty in His infinite wisdom [has] dropped the atomic bomb in our lap." Now for the first time the United States, "with vision and guts and plenty of atomic bombs," could "compel mankind to adopt the policy of lasting peace … or be burned to a crisp."<ref>John Lewis Gaddis, ''The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947'', (New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1972), p 245.</ref>

=== Zionism ===
Johnson was a Zionist who supported the establishment of [[Israel]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dinin |first=Samuel |date=1945 |title=Zionist and Pro-Palestine Activities |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23602731 |journal=The American Jewish Year Book |volume=47 |pages=325–339 |jstor=23602731 |issn=0065-8987}}</ref>

==Sport affiliations==
Johnson was also the President of the [[Western League (1900–1958)|Western League]], a Class A baseball league, from 1947 to 1955. He was instrumental in the construction of Bears Stadium / [[Mile High Stadium]], and was inducted in 1968 into the [[Colorado Sports Hall of Fame]].

==Death and legacy==
He died at [[Saint Joseph Hospital (Denver, Colorado)|Saint Joseph Hospital]] in [[Denver, Colorado|Denver]] and is interred at the [[Fairmount Mausoleum (Denver, Colorado)|Fairmount Mausoleum]] at [[Fairmount Cemetery (Denver, Colorado)|Fairmount Cemetery]] in Denver. The eastbound bore of the [[Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel]] is named for Johnson.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.codot.gov/travel/eisenhower-tunnel/description.html|title=About the Eisenhower Tunnel}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Edwin C. Johnson}}
*[https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Edwin%20Johnson.pdf Governor Edwin Carl Johnson Collection at the Colorado State Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016184508/https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Edwin%20Johnson.pdf |date=October 16, 2020 }} Retrieved 19 February 2020.
*"Colorado Governor Edwin Carl Johnson," [https://web.archive.org/web/20090809002150/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=083a224971c81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD National Association of Governors biography]
{{CongBio|J000127}}
* {{Find a Grave|7362877}}
*[https://duarchives.coalliance.org/repositories/2/resources/652 Guide to the Edwin C. Johnson papers at the University of Denver] Retrieved 19 February 2020.

==Other sources==
*McCarthy, William T. ''Horse Sense: The Divided Politics of Edwin C. Johnson, 1923 - 1954'' (Greeley, Co.: University of Northern Colorado, Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1996)
*McCarty, Patrick Fargo  ''Big Ed Johnson: A Political Portrait'' (Boulder, Co.: University of Colorado, Unpublished Master's Thesis, 1958)

{{s-start}}
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{{s-par|us-sen}}
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{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Colorado}}
{{Lieutenant Governors of Colorado}}
{{USSenCO}}
{{SenCommerceCommitteeChairmen}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Edwin}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:American Christian Zionists]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:Baseball executives]]
[[Category:Dispatchers]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Colorado]]
[[Category:Lieutenant governors of Colorado]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives]]
[[Category:People from Republic County, Kansas]]
[[Category:Politicians from Lincoln, Nebraska]]
[[Category:People from Fillmore County, Nebraska]]
[[Category:Politicians from Denver]]
[[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Colorado]]
[[Category:American people of Swedish descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Lutherans]]
[[Category:Burials at Fairmount Cemetery (Denver, Colorado)]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Colorado General Assembly]]