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On Popeye Day

Get ready to sing along because today is Popeye Day! (Words will appear during the second stanza)

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During my youth, the Mr. Cartoon Show at 4 in the afternoon on WSAZ provided my weekday cartoon fix … and Popeye the Sailor was the star of the show. Once I learned about Saturday being Popeye Day (actually celebrating his comic strip debut in 1929), I delayed the next Explore post because this is the perfect opportunity to revisit some classic characters through past posts.

Here’s the main cast of characters
Popeye
Olive Oyl
Bluto
Wimpy

Which did you visit?

61 thoughts on “On Popeye Day”

  2. Oh cool, you had previously done posts about each of the characters! Popeye was part of my childhood viewing too, the colour version! I adore spinach and so like many people, I’m sure spinach is one of the first things I think of when popeye is mentioned. I bet that guy did a lot for spinach sales. I learned something about Wimpy from your Wimpy page – I hadn’t realised that he had inspired the name for the Wimpy hamburger chain, I assumed it was the other way around, that he had been named Wimpy because of the hamburger chain! I hadn’t really thought about the timing of it all. Also, I hadn’t realised the Wimpy chain started in the UK, I thought all hamburger chains had come from the US. So you’re giving me a history lesson here too Frank. Now I want a hamburger with a side of spinach, and it’s not even 7.30am here!

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    • Vanessa,
      Stimulating your desire for a hamburger and spinach is quite the praise – thus I am grateful. Considering that this is the 69th classic cartoon post, the number of classic characters that I’m willing to cover is getting very small. So hey … feel free to look around. Any favorites I should identify for you?

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  5. Happy Popeye Day, Frank! Oddly this was one cartoon I enjoyed much more reading on paper rather than watching on tv, just like most of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. They were my favorite time of the day! Have a great weekend! 🙂

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  6. Morning aFa…I spent a delusional childhood believing…spinach was tasty because Popeye ate bunches by the fistfuls…forgetting my mother was the worst cook ever. Spinach was not eaten with relish then…but now is. Popeye rules!

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  7. My brother and I used to love this show when we were itty bitty. We’d get up super early on Saturday morning and wait for cartoons to start. That was back when they only showed cartoons at that time. Thanks for taking me back there. 🙂

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  14. I don’t recall Popeye being a favorite cartoon of mine. I watched because my dad was a Popeye fan, and we watched whatever Dad was watching. My younger brother was called Wimpy for quite a while, because he did a fantastic impersonation of Wimpy. Thanks for a good memory, Frank!

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  15. Popeye looked like my uncle Doug, Olive oyl was a terrible role model for women as she vacillated between men in a pathetic dithery sort of way and was prone to histrionics, Bluto was a brutish bully who resorted to violence at any given time so that leaves me with Wimpy, who although he was a bit of a freeloader, knew the ins and outs of a good burger and just how to get one so thus, Wimpy is my hero in this celebration.

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  16. I visited your original Popeye and Wimpy posts, not having seen those before, Frank. I prefer the Popeye cartoons that were released theatrically in the 1930s-40s-50s more than the ones made for the TV series. The earlier shorts had better animation. Even though the plot-lines adhered to the same formula: Popeye gets into a jam that requires he eats spinach to have the strength to escape, there were episodes of other characters eating the spinach to save his neck (like the one you published on your original post featuring his father; a short dripping with all kinds of sub-text). Overall, I always found Popeye’s crazy antics entertaining.

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    • Lame,
      Good news is that the Popeye I grew up with were the theatrical shorts you appreciate. Complaints from parental groups brought an end to the Popeye that I knew … but at least he still mumbles in the new ones.

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  21. I loved Popeye. In the Los Angeles market we had the talented Tom Hatten (broadway, television & film) host the Popeye Show. He would draw squiggles and caricatures while talking about the cartoons. He was like a bonus to the wonderful cartoons. The show was a favorite of mine. I re-visited Wimpy and Olive. Favorites!

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  22. Awww … I missed Popeye Day. But, Happy Popeye Day anyway !!!
    You brought the biggest smile to my hubby’s face. He was and is a big fan of Popeye. Yes, he sang along. He enjoyed the movie when it was made with Robin Williams too. I watched them once in a while. We didn’t get too many hours of T.V. time growing up. I like the old time cartoons. Fun but if you look at Popeye there is a bit of violence between him and Bluto and over a woman. A little adult subject going on there. LOL : )

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    • Isadora,
      Cheers to hubby’s joy of Popeye. (Pass that along!) 🙂

      The old ones used violence in a way that is unacceptable today. I’m one who believes that parental objections closed the curtain on the old versions, thus ushering in a new Popeye that we old timers didn’t accept … thus Popeye wouldn’t achieve the popularity of his predecessor.

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