Johnny Bode

Johnny Bode
Johnny Bode (1912-83) at the beginning of his musical career. Photo from the Swedish magazine Charme 1931.
Background information
Born	(1912-01-06)6 January 1912 Falköping, Sweden
Died	25 July 1983(1983-07-25) (aged 71) Malmö, Sweden
Genres	popular music
Occupation(s)	composer, singer

Johnny Bode (6 January 1912 in Falköping, Sweden – 25 July 1983 in Malmö, Sweden) was a Swedish singer, composer and enfant terrible.

After his debut at seventeen years old, Bode recorded hundreds of songs on the gramophone, many of them his own compositions. One of his best-known songs is "En herre i frack" (A Gentleman in Tailcoat), which Gösta Ekman (senior) sang in 1936. The song later become popularized by famous Swedish singer Jan Malmsjö, who added it to his repertoire. The last gramophone record with Johnny Bode as a singer was recorded in 1942. The life of Johnny Bode is one of the most amazing in the history of Swedish music. Over and over again, when his career was demolished, he was able to rise and build a new career, only to ruin it himself shortly after.

For the most part, Bode lived far more extravagantly than he was able to afford. He was a well-known figure in show business in those days, and was liked in the pubs because of his generous style. Even the fact that he was often broke didn't stop him. He was a master of sneaking out the back door and letting others pay his debts. Another distinguishing characteristic of Bode was his unmatched mythomania. Over and over again he lied to others, a personality flaw that blackened his career. He became good friends with Gösta Ekman and was almost like a son to him, until the day Ekman discovered that Bode had tried to sell their silverware set to a pawnbroker. Bode skipped out on countless hotel bills, and was blacklisted by several of Stockholm's finest restaurants. He was also involved in the theft of expensive carpets, and embezzlement through false checks.

Bode's out-of-control lifestyle many times led him into crime. After many cases of fraud, he was declared incapable, and put into psychiatric care in the mental hospital of St. Sigfrid in Växjö, Sweden. In connection with the diagnosis, he was sterilized.