Richard Johnson

Cripple Creek’s Second Founding Father Turns 80

Courtesy Cripple Creek District Museum

From the Colorado Gambler Magazine, February 2002

It all started when Richard Johnson’s one and only marriage ended and he came west. On the way back from a trip to Las Vegas, Johnson stopped in Colorado Springs to see a friend, stage producer and millionaire heir Blevins Davis. As it happened Davis was considering buying the Cripple Creek Times & Victor Daily Record, the only surviving newspaper in the Cripple Creek District. “Blevins asked me if I wanted to go into the publishing business, and I said yes,” Johnson recalls. “So I came here to get a divorce and never went home.”

The year was 1951. Dick Johnson, just 29 years old, had already seen a lot of life for such a young man. The son of a banker in Iowa, Dick left home at age 18 to attend college, first at the University of Minnesota and later, George Washington. After earning degrees in economics and philosophy, Dick next applied for a job with the United Nations. “I was the 12th person hired,” he says of his position as head of civilian personnel for all of Europe.

After stints in Toronto and London, Dick landed in Paris where he had both an apartment in the city and a home in the country, plus his own car and driver and even a plane at his disposal. Once, quite by accident, Dick’s limo driver took a wrong turn and ended up the second car in a parade led by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. Charles DeGalle. Behind him was Gen. Monte Montgomery and Gen. Mark Clark. “I just waved, and everyone thought I was part of the parade,” he remembers. “A friend of my brother’s saw me and reported back to my brother, ‘I had no idea Dick was working such an important job!’”

Such a prestigious lifestyle led to meeting an impressive variety of celebrities, largely through Dick’s friendship with Blevins Davis. There was the night Dick ran into Judy Garland in New York and took her bar-hopping. Actress Lauren Bacall is a sometime acquaintance. Dick’s memories are rife with such episodes as dining next to actress Stella Stevens and attending a soiree at singer Lena Horn’s suite in New York’s Waldorf Hotel. He went to school with Mamie Eisenhower, who has visited him at his home in Cripple Creek. More recently, Dick found himself dining with Mrs. Nelson D. Rockefeller in nearby Vail.

But it was his longtime friendship with Blevins that made a difference in little ol’ Cripple Creek. Already, evidence of a new revival in Cripple Creek was showing itself in the way of Wayne and Dorothy Mackin’s melodrama shows. Blevins, ever curious to see what his wealth might bring, bought the old Midland Terminal Depot and told Dick to start a museum. Then Davis left town.

Dick obligingly spoke with several widows of Cripple Creek millionaires. By then he was hobnobbing with the likes of Julie Penrose, Ethel Carlton, Mrs. E. W. Giddings and other notable people who appreciated his sincerity. It also didn’t hurt that Dick made quite a dashing figure and was unquestionably accepting of his friends’ eccentricities. Once, he recalls, Mrs. Giddings ordered a pot of coffee to be brought to her from the Broadmoor Hotel to her home on North Cascade Avenue in Colorado Springs when her maid had the day off. “I have never turned on a gas stove,” she told Dick, “and I do not intend to start now.”

With the financial backing of Mrs. Giddings and others, Dick created what is now among the oldest museums in the nation, the Cripple Creek District Museum. Upon his return, Blevins Davis repaid the loans and left Dick to revive Cripple Creek through both the museum and the newly christened Gold Rush newspaper. Over time Dick won a number of awards for his writing in the Gold Rush. He also bought and sold several homes, as well as what is now the Colorado Grande Casino. For many years' time, he also owned and operated Riis Johnson Antiques on Bennett Avenue. His work was balanced with social time spent at grand dinners, cocktail gatherings, and bridge parties that were all the rage in Cripple Creek. “Cripple Creek had high society when I first came here,” he says. “I went to more formal parties here than I ever did any place else.”

Photographs of these occasions reveal such pioneers as Mr. and Mrs. A. C. “Doc” Denman, the Hills and the Wades—all old families of Cripple Creek whose importance is sometimes now forgotten. Black tie and formal dress were the mode of the day. Occasionally, the likes of Margaret Truman or some other notable person were included on the guest list. Dick fondly recalls one time when Prince Pahlavi, brother of the Shah of Iran, came for a visit. “My maid quit that morning,” he says. “So the prince had to make his own bed. But he didn’t seem to mind.”

Neither did Dick. In fact, Cripple Creek’s second founding father has accepted his fortunate lot in life with graceful modesty. Over the years he has served on the board for the Bank of Cripple Creek, and he is currently approaching his 50th year as president of the board at the Cripple Creek District Museum. These days, he is content to stay at home with his two cats and have an occasional lunch outing in Colorado Springs. Plus, there are his daily excursions to downtown Cripple Creek to dine and play a few quarters. His fondness for gambling, with a lucky streak that has netted him a record number of royals, has earned him the nickname from this writer of “Lucky Johnson.”

On Sunday, February 24th, Dick will be the guest of honor at his own 80th birthday celebration. The party will begin at 5 p.m. at the Cripple Creek Elk’s Lodge #316. Many of Dick’s longtime friends are expected to make an appearance, and the dress code will echo Dick’s sentiments about Cripple Creek: “It’s such a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are no neckties.” Those who cannot attend can address cards and letters to Dick via the Cripple Creek District Museum, P.O. Box 1210, Cripple Creek, CO 80813. “I’ve had a wonderful life,” he says. “I’ve gotten to do everything I ever wanted to do.”

Long may you wave, Dick.