- Hi, I'm Hermene Hartman with "N'DIGO STUDIO," and today we have a very special guest.

He's exceptional, an entrepreneur, a legend, a business tycoon.

-Today Mr. Johnson is a Vibrant 97 Years young.. -He built a dynasty, A fortune.

and changed the culture in America for Black women in hair care.

He started his business, but he really started a whole industry.

- This is a story of Chicago.

This is a story from the South Side of Chicago.

N'digo Studio, N'digo Studio For more information about this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The Chicago Community Trust.

Sin city Studios, Lamborghini Chicago, Gold Coast, and Downers Grove.

Blue cross.

Blue.

Shield of Illinois.

Commonwealth Edison and the Illinois Health Plan.

Meet Mr. George Johnson.

Mr. Johnson, thank you, thank you, thank you for being with us and letting us share your story with.

The world, to be here with you.

You changed the way black women looked, hairstyles and how they did their hair, how hair was done.

That's really the revolution that you brought forth.

That's true.

All right.

Now, one point you wanted to stop doing business, and you thought about going into the ministry.

Is that after Afro Sheen or before?

Actually, that was before.

Okay, so tell me about that.

Why did you want to go into ministry?

And what did Doctor Faulkner say to you?

I had, I had really invested and invested a lot of time and and, reading the Bible.

Sorry.

Reading the Bible.

And I was 17 and setting and developing my religiosity.

I thought I was called.

For the ministry.

But I loved my business and the business was really going well.

And so I thought my pastor, Doctor William J. Faulkner.

And I told him what was going on.

I was having a conflict.

And, to be in business or to.

Be in the way to be sure if I'm really called, I don't want it.

I don't want to miss that.

Doctor Faulkner told me that he thought that I was a good businessman, and that a business man can do as much good as he can do.

He said to me that a man with money can do a lot of good for a lot of people, and I would, if I were you, I would stick to my business and do as good as you can for people.

And you did.

And I did.

Okay, so now let's get to Afro Sheen.

So now the culture is changing.

Hairstyle rules are changing.

We're moving from straightening the hair.

Yeah.

To natural hair.

Right.

And Doctor King got Doctor King.

Yeah okay.

So you very you were you were a financial supporter of Doctor King's civil rights movement, Jesse Jackson.

Yeah.

The Urban League.

Yeah.

Okay.

So 1964, October 19th, something devastating happened.

This is a national business about approaching international realism.

And you become very determined that you're going to build your own building where offices and factory can be, which we know today was at 85, 22 South Lafayette.

Tell us how that came about.

Well, when we got everything going at Pull Products.

And let me just show you that we were able to start shipping again ten days after we went into into Fuller products.

But I immediately saw a, a temporary location, because I needed to get my people out of there.

I found a sufficient location and equipped it so that we could operate on our own.

Wanted to be independent.

At 7200 South Chicago Avenue.

Okay.

And then when I got that going, I started looking for a permanent place.

And I had seen this property on the Dan Ryn Expressway at 85.. 85 fifth and Lafayette.

And I found out who owned it.

And it turned out that the guy that owned it was president of the of the bank that I banked in, that that I asked for a business loan and they laughed me out of the bank.

And I took my money out of that bank that that same day they left me out and put it in another bank.

But this guy owned this property.

So I told them I would like to buy two acres of that property.

And, this this property was stacked up with concrete and and tarmac.

It was a garbage dump.

It was a dump that the city was using.

We agreed on a price for two acres.

And immediately I sided with the architect.

and then we got all that done and started building.

The fire was on, it was, October 1964.

We started building, in 65. and the building was finished in and September of 66.

So it took you a year to build the building?

A little.

Over a year.

And it was magnificent.

And so now you open up.

And so now your national business is growing.

Business is doing well, employing are happy.

And Vince Colors takes you to see something that was going on in Chicago and showed you something where kids were dancing in a little studio called Soul Train with Don Cornelius.

What happened then?

This is 1970 now.

Okay.

In 1970, the first advertising agent I use was a white agent because there was no black agency.

Right?

And the guy on my account, his name was Tom Coon.

And Tom Coon called me up one day and said that he knows the show.

I need to look at.

And I told him, okay, let's see what you're talking about.

And he took me to the financial, the financial center building.

And and I met Don Cornelius.

And when I met nobody, I just laugh.

When I saw him.

He laughed.

I laughed.

Don hat on.

a long red, a long red, coat with a big collar and and boots over his knees.

And a big natural.

And a big natural.

So I just, I just I just laughed at it, and I said, Tom, what is this?

And he said, God, just trust me.

Anyway, I saw the show and the show was what was good.

It was.

But the taping of the show was in black and white.

So when I saw the black and white, I wasn't impressed.

And I and I decided that we are in fact, what I did was pay for a 30 minute pilot to see what the show would look like in color.

And when I looked at it in color.

You liked it.

I liked it, I saw the energy and oh, it was just a world of difference.

And I decided to support it.

I decided that we would.

You would the soul advertise, Mr. Johnson?

Well, we.

What happened?

Have we formed a company?

Okay.

And and, Don had half the company I had at JPC had half the company, and, we paid all the bills.

Don didn't have any money.

He had a great.

Idea that he had, but he had the show and he had the ideas.

He was the host.

He wrote the scripts.

So we just meld together.

So.

And let's, let's, let's put this in historical cultural context.

So this is at a time when black entertainers were not necessarily on television and we didn't have a place.

Motown is grooming and coming Stax records is grooming and coming, and our entertainers did not have a place to showcase their new records.

And and so that's what Don Cornelius did.

You wrote a cultural trend.

That's exactly what it was.

Okay.

And and so and you sponsored that because you wanted to go on television?

Well, actually, I tried to I tried television a couple of times, and it and for other for certain reasons, it didn't work.

But Soul Train with your products, it's focus what they call now target marketing.

Yes.

Right.

Yes.

Okay.

And so Afro Sheen came into being because now we've got naturals and we now have a hair spray and hair, products that makes the hair shine and cuts it down a little bit.

You wrote a cultural trend.

Yeah.

You did, you did that twice in your business at.

It's a sign that we saw a Soul Train.

an apparition was a big product.

It was a big product.

Yeah, it was a big product to make it profitable.

We gave we gave Don three minutes to sell, and now the three minutes we use for our product Soul train has been brought to you in part by the Johnson Products Company.

Now comes the gentle treatment, the ultimate relaxing elixir culture torch.

We did the first no lye, relax and nobody else.

Nobody in our business could be on that show.

So now your business is growing.

Yes.

You're on television.

Mr. Johnson, some of the commercials you did with the very first black commercials on TV.

Then something else happens.

Another business pops up called Essence Magazine.

And you bought essence magazine and you helped them in their business.

Yes.

Well what happened there is, essence.

I think started in, I believe in 1969.

And and like a lot of businesses, they were undercapitalized.

They made that first issue and then they ran into financial problems.

You got to pay to print.

And, one of them, one of their members, Cecil came in and told and asked me, told me what was going on and that they needed, you know, some money.

So what I decided to do was prepay and set up for, for my ads two years in advance.

So I think I had these are two, two pages a month or four pages a month that I paid in advance.

And they got either 50,000 or $100,000.

It probably was 100.

And that, was enough money to get them out of the hole.

So life is good.

Successful.

What's happening in your home life?

Joan and I, my wife Joan and I became sweethearts in 1955.

Right?

You're right.

She was 15, and we were together from the time she was 15 until 40 days before her 90th birthday.

And that on that day she died.

Joan worked in the company to and eventually left the company.

But you got divorced.

After 39 years.

We divorced.

Okay.

I gave her the company.

You gave her the company.

Okay.

And so she sold the company?

Yeah.

She did.

Okay.

You went on the stock market.

We went on the stock exchange.

Yeah.

Okay.

Then you were the first black company to be on the stock exchange.

Yes.

Okay, tell me about that.

And tell me how and why you went on the stock exchange and.

1969.

I went on we went public.

Okay.

A couple of years before that, the stock brokers, became aware of our company and started following us.

And, and I had, one I had at least 2 or 3 people that came ask, trying to ask me to, you know, go public.

One of my accepted, Hornblower and weeks and they started talking to us from about 1967 until we went public in 69, what we had to do in order to get ready to do that.

And we did.

The reason I went public was that, all the money I had was was in the company.

I didn't take any money out except what I needed to live on.

And.

And the reason I didn't is because personal income tax was between 70 and 71%.

And I didn't want to pay 71% tax.

And the stockbrokers told me if I went public and whatever, stock I sold, it would be taxed at 28%.

And that is a better deal.

Yeah.

Better financial.

Right.

So I think we got about $7 million out of that So in, in, in going public, you had to do, annual report.

When we went public.

Horn boy weeks that took us public insisted that we have a first, top notch accounting firm.

We had a small accounting firm, and Joan was.

Joan was.

And she was the bookkeeper in charge of the bookkeeping department.

And, when we got the top notch, accounting firm, they insisted that Joan, that we moved Joan out of the accounting department and that a CPA should be running that department.

And and that meant that Joan didn't have a job because that.

Was there anybody else I could put her in the company, and I had to ask her to go home.

And that was not that didn't go well with her.

She she loved the company.

And she had been in the company like 16 years.

So having to get having to ask her to go was not easy and she didn't take it well.

I want to talk about, as you were doing annual reports, because you're on the stock exchange now.

Mr. Charles Revlon, who owned Revlon company, was closely observed and watching because he was looking at a new market, a market that he did not know but thought he should be in.

And he wanted to buy you, but he died.

but the Revlon had their eye on you.

Yes, that's that's true.

And what and what we did with the first annual report that we that we did, we were careful not to do to reveal everything.

All products.

And we even gave graphs of, of, of the what our total volume was.

what you.

Right.

And and how much of that total volume each product contributed and that, that gave him that, that gave him a lot of information.

So we were just trying to do what they told us to do.

And that was to be honest and be upfront and do it and reveal everything that we did.

Okay, now Revlon buys JPC Joan, not Revlon.

No, it wasn't Revlon.

No.

Who was it?

No, it was Ibex Corporation okay.

Pharmaceuticals okay.

So they board and and so the business change and you you talk about going on the stock exchange was a mistake.

Well that's after many years after me.

Okay.

Tell me why that was a mistake.

And you said you wouldn't you wouldn't do it again.

No.

If you could, you wouldn't do it again.

Tell me why.

Because I had to listen to other people who were all, all my board investment brokers who were putting people in our stock.

In the book, I talk about how that started, and I had to read, I had to recoup and, and, and get them out of the company.

Mr. Johnson, one of the things that you've done consistently in business is you've been community supported.

We make the case and talk often about black businesses and black businesses growing and what it means.

And one of the things it means is one, it means employing men because we tend to hire our own.

That's one thing it means.

But the other thing it means is money is in the community flowing.

You support it.

Civil rights organizations?

I think maybe your pet project was Chicago Urban League.

Yes.

And talk about how community development was important.

You, you you you did something from the experience that you had in going to a bank to get a loan.

You started a bank, independence Bank.

So other business people I.

Was one of the people, I think we're talking about 1964. this is before the fire.

Right?

Gentleman came to ask me to have lunch with him, and, and I did have lunch with him, and he told me that, that, that that he was he was putting together a group of businessmen to, to The bank at 7936 Cottage Grove which was called the, Chatham Bank, Chatham Bank was closed by the FDIC because there was some illegality going on in that bank.

And and the bank being closed was a problem in the community.

Every community needs to have a good bank and and this gentleman, said that he's, you know, he's got some good guys and people I knew And he wanted to get enough people to open the bank.

And he asked me if I wanted to join.

And I told him I did.

And you got other business to to join you too, right.

And and it was about 7 or 8 of us, I think that, so the bank I put in the most money, I mean, we started with a capital of about 750,000.

I put in 250,000.

So I had a, minority control.

But that's and the reason I did that is because I had my problems with getting bank bank loans and, and I knew how disappointing that was for anybody.

Need some money?

Any business man need money.

And especially Mr. Fuller.

Mrs. Fuller was never able to borrow money.

He had to borrow money from from, wealthy, successful black business people and pay a 10% interest to get money.

Mr. Johnson, what would you tell?

We're winding up now.

What would this would you give to a business person now starting out, what good advice might you give?

Well, I've thought about that.

I got a few things here that I want that I want to.

you want to say, okay.

I got five things here.

Okay?

The first one is you must have a product or service that people need or want and will value.

And you have to have a burning desire to succeed and be willing to work your butt off.

Yes.

Third is to be the best in the business.

You choose for help.

People be honest and put and put their interests ahead of yours.

And that and the customers you serve will make you successful.

So love them.

And then the golden rule.

What about that golden rule?

Well that comes a little bit later.

It's some it's a piece of advice that that actually is personal and that comes from my heart.

And this is what I would tell any entrepreneur.

Get close to God and try to stay close to God.

and try to stay close to God.

That is the best advice I could give.

And.

And it's it's wonderful.

I study the Bible from the time I was 17 and I went to the the New Testament, and when I found the book of, of Matthew and the fifth chapter and read the sermon on the Mount, I recommend that any entrepreneur, because in that sermon Jesus tells us how to live and how he wants us to live.

And it's not easy.

And it wasn't easy for me, but I tried to be.

I tried to do it, to be as to to live as much as I could.

According to that sermon.

Mr. Johnson, thank you for being with us, and thank you for your journey and for sharing it because what you did, what you've done, what you continue to do is really a statement of faith, perseverance, determination.

And you've really been a model business person.

Model in that how you ran your business, but you opened up and you share with others what you did for essence magazine kept them alive.

What you did for Soul Train is you put them in business.

And what you did for me.

In my first PR attempts.

Thank you.

I thank you.

And I hope this interview is seen by a lot of people.

Mr. Johnson is still hard to get a business loan.

I followed your model.

I went to a bank to get a business loan.

And at the time, they weren't loaning the media company.

They still ain't loaning to us.

Okay.

God bless.

But what Jacoby Dickens did, and Jacoby was a friend.

He's a friend of my family, so I just knew I had I had my money.

But what he did is what a good businessman of your era did.

Every Friday, he invited me for lunch and there was a business person there, and he would say, okay, you got to buy ads in her paper and you got to pay her four year.

And that was the cash money that you needed to pay your printer.

You've helped so many people.

I don't think you even know what your impact has been.

Thank you.

Oh, now, there's one other thing I didn't say.

And then and that is very important.

What's that?

The last part is follow the Golden rule.

The golden rule.

And Mr. Fuller taught you that, didn't he?

Thank you, George Johnson.

Thank you for being with us and the book you got to read it, Afro Sheen and how I Revolutionized an Industry, from Soul Train to Wall Street and women all over everybody used Ultra Sheen.

And it changed our look.

You changed our style and the industry today.

The hair care, the black hair care industry.

Now black women use more product than any other ethnic group on their hair because our hair is dry.

And so we have to use oil and we have to use the perm to straighten it and we have to use other things.

But this industry today, current market is 2.5 billion to 4.5 billion.

There was a time where white companies did not have the color for our skin and did not have the product for our hair.

And Mr. Johnson started this.

You started a business, but you opened up an industry.

Thank you so much.

For more information about this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by Illinois Student Assistance Commission, the Chicago Community Trust, Sin City Studios, Lamborghini, Chicago Gold Coast, and Downers Grove.

Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Illinois, Commonwealth Edison, and the Illinois Health Plan.

N'digo Studio.