While this is a charming and well-imagined answer, the truth is that the phrase is 'Kelsey's...tonsils' not 'Chelsea's'.
'Deader than Kelsey's nuts' is the actual phrase (fairly common in the '30's, increasingly so later on). If you google it, you'll find a bunch of info on wheel lug-nuts made by a company named 'Kelsey'. However, it is entirely possible that the censors even in pre-Code Hollywood would not pass a phrase that seemed to refer to gentlemen's wedding tackle. The punning possibilities of 'nuts' would have appealed to men in the era.
If you listen carefully, you'll hear a perceptible pause between 'Kelsey's' and 'tonsils' as Chester Kent substitutes one paired body part for another. Everyone in the audience would likely have known the original phrase and would have laughed.
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