KEY CREW BEHIND THE STAR: E.C. Segar (comic strip creator), Max and Dave Fleischer (producers), Jack Mercer (voice), Seymour Kneitel (animator/director)

CAREER HIGH: POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINBAD THE SAILOR (1936) - Innovative and entertaining first two-reel color Popeye cartoon.

For over half a century, schoolchildren have sung some variation of Popeye's theme song. Despite all his popularity as a hero of a newspaper comic strip, Popeye today is best remembered as an animated cartoon superstar.

Popeye is a sailor with no real desire to go into any other occupation even though he frequently is seen temporarily working in some other line of work. His right eye squinches shut causing his left eye to "pop" open wide. His forearms balloon with muscular strength and are decorated with an anchor tattoo. Originally he smoked a corncob pipe, but in recent years, perhaps because of anti-smoking sentiment, it often mysteriously disappears.

Popeye would swallow a can of spinach to gain almost superhuman strength. In his animated cartoons, audiences would wait expectantly for the minute Popeye would pop open a can of the green weed, guaranteeing an exciting climax to the adventure. From 1931 to 1936, the spinach industry officially credited Popeye with increasing the United States consumption of spinach by 33 percent. One spinach growing town in Texas erected a statue in honor of Popeye. There was even a Popeye brand spinach.

Popeye never initiated a fight and would only resort to his spinach after all other efforts had failed. The recipient of Popeye's powerful punch was often the villainous Bluto (later renamed Brutus) who was usually trying to force his affections on Popeye's skinny girlfriend, Olive Oyl.

POPEYE BECOMES ANIMATED

Popeye was created by cartoonist Elzie (E.C.) Segar in 1929 almost as a throwaway character for his comic strip "Thimble Theater." The ugly, tough-talking, one-eyed sailor was probably the last character anyone would have picked to win the hearts of millions but Popeye's popularity proved phenomenal. Within four years, Popeye was appearing in animated cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios.

Unlike the lighthearted and bright cartoons of the West Coast cartoon studios, the Fleischer Studios in New York caricatured the darker, meaner streets of the Big Apple in black and white tones that seemed as vivid as any color efforts. Story construction was tight because director Dave Fleischer followed a strict graph that showed where the peaks of tension should occur during a cartoon.

This formula had helped make a star of their main character, Betty Boop. On July 14, 1933, a very different Betty Boop short appeared. The name of the cartoon was POPEYE THE SAILOR and Betty only briefly showed up on screen to dance the hula with Popeye. The rest of the cartoon was devoted to Popeye rescuing Olive from Bluto. The cartoon was designed to test the audience's reaction to the familiar comic strip sailor. Popeye passed with flying colors and his own series of cartoons was soon in production.

Songwriter Sammy Lerner, who wrote the theme song "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man," turned out the classic in less than two hours. "I knew the song had to be illiterate and not in the peak of melodic taste to be in character for the subject matter," Lerner remarked in an interview. "But when I saw the first cartoon I wanted to crawl into a corner." Eventually the song was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

"It was lucky Popeye was a cartoon because I'd have made a pretty poor Popeye in body," claimed Jack Mercer who supplied the voice for Popeye for most of the character's career. "I'm only five feet five inches tall and didn't weigh more than 110 pounds at the time. Besides I don't like Popeye's favorite: spinach. I do like hamburgers, just like Wimpy. In fact, it's about my favorite food."

Mercer became the voice of Popeye after the original voice, William "Red Pepper Sam" Costello was fired by the Fleischers. Fame had quickly gone to Costello's head. Mercer, who was working in the Fleischer animation department at the time, was recruited for the part. He brought a gentleness and humor to the character that was lacking in Costello's interpretation.

The selection of voices was very important because unlike cartoons from the other studios, the Fleischer cartoons were post-synced. (The dialog was recorded after the animation was completed rather than before.) This method encouraged those under-the-breath ad libs that highlight the series which added a freshness and another dimension of reality.

The first official Popeye cartoon was I YAM WHAT I YAM released in September of 1933 with Dave Fleischer credited as director and Seymour Kneitel as head animator. The Fleischer cartoons, in vivid black and white, were one of the most faithful adaptations ever of a comic strip character to animation. They retained the spirit of the original inspiration, and the series is filled with remarkable variety, well rounded characters, and excellent story construction.

Olive, voiced by Betty Boop's Mae Questel, was often the catalyst for a story. In A DREAM WALKING (1934) both Popeye and Bluto chase a sleepwalking Olive through a construction site hoping to save her from serious injury. Still asleep, she returns unharmed back to her apartment after Popeye and Bluto have exhausted themselves in a wasted effort to be heroes. In CLEAN SHAVEN MAN, Olive's comment that she likes a clean shaven man lead Popeye and Bluto into a grooming battle. At the end, they discover Olive enamored of a bearded stranger.

Certainly the highpoint of Popeye's career at the Fleischer studios were the three two-reel Color Specials: POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR (1936), POPEYE MEETS ALI BABA AND HIS 40 THIEVES (1937) and POPEYE MEETS ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP (1939). All were filmed in Technicolor. To give more depth to the action, miniature sets were built and the celluloid action was filmed in front of them. In other words, the animated characters had three dimensional foregrounds and backgrounds. Even today the effect is amazing.

THE FAMOUS POPEYE

For a variety of reasons, the Fleischer studio was taken over by Paramount in 1942. The studio was renamed Famous Studios and the Fleischer family left. Many of their staffers, in particular Seymour Kneitel, stayed on to continue doing the cartoons.

In keeping with the war effort, Popeye changed from his familiar sailor outfit to Navy whites. Along with the white uniform, Popeye began to lose some of the hard edges he exhibited in earlier cartoons. Gradually other changes became evident making these later cartoons less worthy of consideration to some fans.

The films were now pre-synced like other animated cartoons. Even though Jack Mercer was working as a storyman, the amusing ad libs were eliminated. Although color cartoons were common from other studios, it wasn't until 1943 and the release of HER HONOR THE MARE that the Popeye series was produced in color. Backgrounds became simplified

More and more stories seemed to revolve around the cliched situation of Popeye losing Olive to Bluto and the resolution of the story depending upon a fight. The little character touches so effective in the earlier black and whites, like tanks or volcanoes appearing on Popeye's muscles after he ate spinach, disappeared.

While it is easy for some to dismiss the approximately 120 cartoons that Famous produced from the middle of 1942 (YOU'RE A SAP, MR. JAP) to 1957 (SPOOKY SWABS), the series still has much to recommend it. The color quality was good. Outstanding animation craftsmen like Otto Mesmer (who created Felix the Cat) and Bill Tytla (who animated villains for Disney's early features) worked on several episodes.

Several cartoons are of special interest like SHE SICK SAILORS (1944) which made fun of the Fleischer Superman cartoons. Olive falls in love with Superman after reading his comic book adventures so Bluto disguises himself as the Man of Steel to win her affections. Soon, it is a test of super-strength between this phony Superman and Popeye. In 1953, the only 3-D Popeye cartoon was released, THE ACE OF SPACE.

Paramount stopped production on the Popeye series in 1957 and sold the backlog of 234 cartoons to Associated Artists Productions (A.A.P.) for TV distribution. Within the first five years, the series recouped ten times it cost. The demand for Popeye cartoons was unbelievable. King Features decided to produce a new series of Popeye cartoons for TV with Mercer and Questel returning to do voice work.

POPEYE THE TV MAN

"It took about 30 years to make the first 234 cartoons, but the next 206 were whipped out during 1960 and 1961," recalled Mercer. The cartoons were churned out as quickly as possible using the most limited animation imaginable. The animation work was farmed out to five different companies all over the world and some of the key directors were Seymour Kneitel, Gene Deitch and Jack Kinney.

A major change in these made-for-TV cartoons was the fact that Bluto's name was changed to Brutus. At the time it was rumored the change was to placate the Disney organization which supposedly felt that the name sounded too close to its dog character, Pluto. As might have been predicted, these quickly produced Popeye cartoons did not meet with the same audience appreciation as the earlier efforts.

The stories are primarily static adventures with lots of talking, lots of reused poses, and little action or imagination. Some of the characters from the original comic strip such as the Sea Hag make appearances but this does not compensate for the weak stories. Some stories revolved around a fairy tale theme such as LI'L OLIVE RIDING HOOD. HITS AND MISSILES has Popeye, Olive and Wimpy traveling to the moon to discover that not only is it made of cheese, but there are cheese creatures living there as well. POPEYE AND THE DRAGON dealt with the medieval adventures of Sir Popeye.

The character didn't appear on the screen in a new adventure until 1972 when the ABC SATURDAY MORNING SUPERSTAR MOVIE presented "Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter." This 60- minute animated adventure, directed by Jack Zander, had Popeye trying to rescue every King Features character from the Phantom to Beetle Bailey and Blondie from the evil designs of Professor Grimsby. Only Popeye seemed to be strong enough to survive this mishmash.

There was a limited release feature in 1973 entitled THE POPEYE FOLLIES: HIS TIMES AND LIFE. It was a compilation of the early Fleischer shorts.

In 1978, Hanna-Barbera was able to secure the rights to the character for THE ALL NEW POPEYE HOUR on CBS. Once again, Jack Mercer was brought in to do the voice of the character and help with the stories.

Within the limits of Saturday morning kidvid restrictions, Hanna-Barbera tried to recapture some of the spirit of the earlier Popeye cartoons. Brutus was rechristened Bluto. Popeye got back his old darker shirt, but with a blue tint to it. The rest of the supporting cast returned but violence was no longer permitted. At best, Popeye and Bluto were now competitors, not only for the love of Olive Oyl but in search for various treasures like the Dalmonica diamond.

The show was divided into five segments. There were three segments devoted to the various adventures of Popeye. There was one segment that focused on the treasure hunting and there was one segment unrelated to the Popeye universe that had the misadventures of Dinky Dog, the world's largest puppy. Popeye and his friends were later recruited to do short spots on health and safety to remind young viewers not to play with knives and to wash their hands. The series ran three years.

Several segments from the series became the basis for a 1978 primetime special, THE POPEYE SHOW (or POPEYE CATCHES DISCO FEVER). Hanna-Barbera also produced THE POPEYE VALENTINE SPECIAL (1979) for prime time. Olive Oyl was teamed with Alice the Goon in a series from H-B reportedly inspired by the popular movie PRIVATE BENJAMIN about women in the army.

A DIFFERENT POPEYE

1980 saw the release of POPEYE, a live action feature starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as Olive. The actors used heavy make-up to resemble the comic characters. Famed director Robert Altman headed the production, based on a script by Jules Feiffer. Harry Nilsson did a musical score for the film, but the movie ended with the Sammy Lerner classic. The movie was poorly received by the critics and did not do strong business.

Another unusual version of Popeye came years later from Hanna-Barbera. In 1987, POPEYE AND SON premiered. Major changes were made in the spinach eating hero. He had apparently married Olive and was the proud father of a young son. The son had no resemblance to either parent but gained strength from spinach just like his old man. Popeye had seemingly abandoned his familiar pipe and now wore a loud, floral Hawaiian shirt. Olive had become a modern woman worried more about her aerobics than the half-hearted disasters that threatened the other members of her family. Bluto, too, had been domesticated and had also produced a son, named Tank, who took after him in the worst way.

That same year Ted Turner, the major force behind the colorization of movies, started to work on Popeye. At the cost of over $10,000 per short, he began converting the 120 black and white Popeye shorts to color. Rather than use the computer colorizing system employed in such features as THE MALTESE FALCON and KING KONG, he simply had the cartoons redrawn. This was done by enlarging each frame of the cartoon and having new artists trace the animation and paint new cels and backgrounds.

These new colorized Popeye cartoons have almost all the subtlety and charm removed. Instead of the intricate Fleischer backgrounds, there are simplified designs. Even the animation suffers under the hands of artists merely tracing action and not understanding the art form. Turner took great pains to explain that the black and white negatives were not destroyed so that new prints could be made. Originally only seen on the Turner owned cable stations, in 1989 these colorized versions began being syndicated to other stations.

Popeye's most recent work is a series of animated commercials showing Popeye abandon his spinach for Quaker Oats cereal. These animated spots are certainly "animated," but it is a bit shocking to hear Popeye proclaim, "can the spinach, I wants me Quaker Instant Oatmeal." The Quakers, a non-violent religous sect, complained about the use of the agressive Popeye as "the Quaker man" and the advertising campaign was re-designed.

POPEYE'S CO-STARS

In the original shorts, the Fleischers needed a suitable foil for Popeye. "Lower than bilge scum, meaner than Satan and strong as an ox, the only man living who might lick Popeye" is the way Bluto ("the Terrible") was described in the 1933 newspaper strip story "The Eighth Sea." He was the current villain in the strip when the first cartoon was being designed and was thus chosen to be Popeye's animated antagonist. His voice was originally provided by Gus Wickie.

Fleischer's voice for Betty Boop, Mae Questel, became the voice of Popeye's "sweet patootie," Olive Oyl. Olive was an ill proportioned, strident, vain woman whose figure resembled a toothpick. Yet despite all her flaws, Popeye loved her with all his heart and was completely loyal to her.

Other characters brought from the strip to the series included J. Wellington Wimpy. This overweight moocher was always willing to "pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." In the comic strip, Wimpy was a pawn of a character who could be working for the villain as well as Popeye. In the cartoons, Wimpy was more of a throwaway joke.

Swee'pea was an orphan baby found by Popeye. This made Popeye a surrogate father, though in the cartoons, Swee' pea tended to be in Olive's care. Later family additions would include the infamous nephews of Popeye: Peepeye, Pipeye, Pupeye and Poopeye, who all physically resembled their uncle.

POPEYE OFF SCREEN

Already a comic strip star when he began, the animated series cemented Popeye's popularity. 1935 saw the start of a Popeye radio show on the NBC network. That same year saw the newspaper and movie star move into comic books where he has had a regular career in both reprints of his classic strips and new stories.

He was a popular merchandising character right from the beginning. A variety of items including toys, watches, records and books have appeared regularly since the Thirties.

A popular fast food restaurant is Popeye's Fried Chicken. For almost a decade it has used images of the Popeye characters to promote everything from "zesty barbercue beans" to "corn on a stick."

Sadly, Popeye is one of the few Cartoon Superstars almost totally neglected by home video. His three Technicolor shorts (MEETS SINBAD, etc.) are available on numerous tapes since they went into public domain. There are a number of tapes that also contain the weaker King Features entries. However almost none of the classic black and white Fleischers are obtainable for the video collector.

SUPERSTAR QUALITY

The spinach powered sailor is still swinging after all these years despite a life that has been filled with the most harrowing episodes imaginable. By 1934, a poll of theater owners showed Popeye more popular than Mickey Mouse. A similar poll in 1938 of children in the U.S. gave the same result. Over half a century later, many would agree with that evaluation. Popeye is still "strong to the finich."

CREATORS QUOTES

"With the arrival of television, the popularity of Popeye cartoons grew and continues to grow. They are seen in millions of homes, and each new generation's love of the sailor and his friends makes him one of television's best loved heroes." - Bud Sagendorf, artist on the Popeye comic strip

"The funnier he looks, the better the cartoon will be." - Max Fleischer, producer

"Popeye is much more than a goofy comic character to me. He represents all of my emotions, and he is an outlet for them... to me Popeye is really a serious person and when a serious person does something funny, it's really funny." - E.C. Segar, Popeye's creator

"One of my professional pains is that my name doesn't appear on the screen. I feel I've lost a great deal without the public and profession being aware I wrote this song." - Sammy Lerner, writer of the Popeye theme song

"I'm strong to the finich, 'cause I eats my spinach. I'm Popeye, the Sailor man. Toot! Toot!" - Popeye theme song