So, I'm an avid cartoon watcher. There are a lot of hidden stories in them. What's the story behind Popeye?

Question

I heard bits and pieces about the famous "Popeye" cartoon being based on a time when America was fighting with another country over olive oil, and the only we could defend ourselves is if we stacked up our money and bought whatever we needed to defend ourselves. In the cartoon, Popeye (America) was at a constant tug of war with Bluto (the other country) in order to win over the heart of Olive Oyl. He defended himself by eating a can of spinach and gaining strength (power).

I have absolutely no idea if this story is true. But i've heard it more than once. I forgot the name of the "other country" by the way. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Answer 1

Popeye traveled to other countries like Nazilia (notice the first four letters!) where the king solved a currency crisis by waving his hand over a shipment of seized counterfeit money and pronouncing it legal.

Popeye also founded a country of his own (on an island, naturally!) the site of the world’s only spinach-oil well. He named it Spinachovia.

There was a lot of political commentary going on with people like Roughhouse (the hamburger chef) and George W. Geezil (another regular) complaining about Washington. “What’s the government done for tailors?” “What’s the government done for restaurant men?” This was a spoof on the government bailout of farmers and other special interest groups.

You might want to pick up a good reference on Popeye. Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson have written All in Color for a Dime, on the early days of comics, and there is a good chapter on Popeye.

Popeye often had adventures in ‘foreign’ lands that he could not have elsewhere, you know.

And, don’t forget, Olive Oyl predates Popeye. He was introduce to the original newspaper strip (Thimble Theatre) years after it began, eventually replacing Olive’s boyfriend (Ham Gravy.)

Then there’s her family. Her brother, Castor Oyl. Her parents Cole and Nana. Her uncle, Lubry Kent. Which one of these Oyls did we go to war over…?

Sorry. It sounds like an ‘apocryphal’ tale to me. Check out the Popeye entry in Toonopedia (which is better for our purposes than Wikipedia) and there may be more links to Popeye fan sites or history.

As far as Popeye’s first appearance, Uncle Lubry Kent had brought Castor a rare African Whiffle Hen, named Bernice. Rubbing her head gave you luck. So Castor planned to travel to Dice Island and break the bank at the casino there.

They needed to hire a ship, so they went down to the port. There was a flea-bitten old wharf rat there; they asked him, “Are you a sailor?” “Whad’ja think I am, a cowboy?” he replied. That was Popeye’s first appearance.

They sailed to Dice Island. Castor did indeed break the bank (he was constantly getting involved in get rich quick schemes, and getting swindled again, so he never stayed rich long.) The casino owner sent his hood to the ship before they sailed to kill them all and get the money back.

The hood shot Popeye fifteen times in the chest at point blank range. Popeye fell backward into the hold and everybody thought he was dead. But, Bernice came to him, and he rubbed her head all night long!

The next morning, he came out and clobbered the hoodlum and saved Olive for the first time. Now, he had done some reasonably tough things before, like winning prize fights for money at carnivals and country fairs. But this was the first time he ever did anything ‘super’. After this, he was still strong, but in a fight, he could not be killed.

So, Popeye got his ‘super’ from a magical source (the luck of the Whiffle Hen) LONG before spinach was introduced in the strip!

The writer, Elsie Segar, lost interest in spinach because it was a one-shot gag, a dead end. It was the Texas and Oklahoma spinach farmers that built huge statues of Popeye and credited him with saving their industry and their farms.

4 APR 07, 1433 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye