Questions And Answers
(in no particular order)
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1.What are
the names of Popeye's nephews?
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Pip-Eye,
Pup-Eye, Poop-Eye, and Peep-Eye.
(And you
thought you were made fun of in school!)
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2. What was
the name of Popeye's dog/cat?
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A
dog-like animal hung out with Popeye in the comic strip, comic books, and
in the Fleischer and KFS toons. He was a magical, fourth dimensional
creature named Eugene The Jeep. I know a few people thought he
looked like a cat. He always looked like a dog to me.
In the comic
strips and comic books, Popeye also had a dog during the 1960s named
Birdseed. More recently, he has one named Chester, after the
birthplace of Popeye's creator, E.C. Segar.
The Hanna-Barbera Popeye show featured "Dinky Dog"
cartoons, but Dinky didn't belong to Popeye, and neither The Sailorman, nor
any of his supporting cast members, ever appeared in these segments.
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3. Whose
baby is Swee-Pea?
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In
the comic strips and comic books, Swee'Pea is Popeye's adopted son.
It was always unclear to me in the Fleischer cartoons who he belonged
to. The Famous Studio's cartoons said that he was Olive Oyl's
cousin. In the KFS toons, he always seemed to be Popeye's adopted
son, though I'm not sure if that was ever stated or not. Swee'Pea
didn't appear in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
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4. Why did
the KFS cartoons change Bluto's name to Brutus?
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When
the Fleischer brothers wanted to use Popeye in animated cartoons during the
1930s, they asked Popeye's creator, E.C. Segar, to create a villain that
could become Popeye's continuing, long-standing nemesis. Segar
created a pirate, Bluto The Terrible, and used him in his comic strip
before the animated films ever came out. After the introductory
adventure, Segar never used the character again. The Fleischer
brothers and later Famous Studios (a division of Paramount Pictures)
produced cartoons featuring Bluto up through the 1950s. In the early
60s, King Features Syndicate, the distributor of Popeye's comic strip, commissioned
several different animation studios to produce made-for-TV Popeye
toons. They mistakenly believed that Paramount Pictures had the
copyright to the name Bluto, forgetting that the character first appeared
in their (KFS's) comic strips. So the same
character was used in the TV toons, only his name was changed to
Brutus. Around this same time, the character began appearing in comic
books and the comic strip by one of Segar's successors under the name of
Brutus. About two decades later, the character reappeared in the
comic strip as Bluto and then Hanna-Barbera
made-for-TV toons featured Bluto. (For more on Bluto, see the Bluto page!)
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5. Who
is that monster-like lady who appears in some of the cartoons?
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Alice
The Goon. Her race appeared in a Fleischer cartoon, "Goonland", and she was in several KFS toons.
She became a supporting character in Hanna-Barbera's
"Private Olive Oyl" cartoons. Alice never appeared in a
Famous Studios' film. E.C. Segar created her for the Thimble Theater
comic strip, first as an enemy of Popeye, then later, as a friend and Swee'Pea's babysitter.
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6. What
are the lyrics to the Popeye theme song and what is the name of the
sailor's song that gets mixed in with the theme song during the credits and
reappears throughout the cartoons?
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The
lyrics are:
I'm Popeye
the Sailor Man
I'm
Popeye the Sailor Man
I'm
strong to the "Finich"
'Cause I
eats me spinach
I'm
Popeye the Sailor Man.
I'm one
tough Gazookus
Which
hates all Palookas
Wot ain't on the up and
square
I biffs 'em and buffs 'em
An'
always out-roughs 'em
an' none
of 'em gits no-where.
If anyone
dasses to risk
My
"Fisk" it's "Boff" an'
It's
"Wham" un 'erstan'?
So, keep
"Good Behavor"
That's
your one life saver
With
Popeye the Sailor Man.
>>>
Written by Sammy Lerner, quoted in Popeye:
The First Fifty Years by Bud Sagendorf.
The sailor's
song that is mixed in with the theme song during the credits and reappears
throughout the cartoons is entitled, "The Sailor's Hornpipe."
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7. What's the name of
Popeye's boat?
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According
to Bud Sagendorf, one of the creators of the Popeye comic strips and comic
books over the years, it's The Olive.
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8. Do you have any pictures of
Swee'Pea, Alice, Sea Hag, The Jeep, etc.?
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What
you see is what you get! The only pictures I have available to the
public are the ones that are up throughout my website. Right clicking
on any of them should enable you to save them off in files. You can
find more pictures by visiting other people's websites that I've linked to
from my POPEYE
LINKS section. I regret that I don't have the time to personally
fulfill requests for pictures.
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9. Can
you send me some pictures of my favorite Popeye cast member?
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Sorry,
but no. I'd like to, but I simply don't have the time. You can
right click on the pictures that are up throughout my site and save them in
your own files.
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10. Do
you sell any Popeye merchandise or have any freebies to give out?
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My
site isn't a commercial site. It's a fan site. Therefore I
don't have anything to sell or have any samples to give away. Check
out Spinach Can Collectibles, though (see POPEYE
LINKS).
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11. Where can I get tapes
or DVDs of the Popeye cartoons?
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Unfortunately,
most of the vast Popeye library has not been released. A few cartoons
from the Fleischers and Famous Studios that are in the public domain are
available along with some from the KFS and Hanna-Barbera
years. Check out Spinach Can Collectibles (see POPEYE
LINKS), Amazon.com, and ebay. Another
way to get some of the toons is to record them off Boomerang and Cartoon
Network. I have no tapes to sell, as I'm not a commercial site.
And, unfortunately, I haven't the time or the equipment to make copies for
everyone either. Sorry! I understand your frustration!
Let's just hope for the day when the toons will be available for home
entertainment. You can watch some of the public domain cartoons
online at Liketelevision.
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12. Do you have any ideas for
costumes of Popeye, Olive, etc.?
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Check
the pictures up all throughout my site for pictures of the Famous Studios'
Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto. A classic FS Olive Oyl pose and outfit
is on my Drab To Fab
page. For other versions of the characters, check out the other web
pages I'm linked to from the POPEYE
LINKS section.
Here are some
catchphrases you can use to get into character:
Popeye:
"Well,
blow me down!"
"That's
all I can stands cause I can't stands no more!"
"I'm
strong to the finich, cause I eats me
spinach!"
Olive:
"Ohhhhhhhhhh, Popeye!"
"I've
had enough and enough is too much."
"Keep
your hands to yourself, you, you, you, that's what you are!"
"Help!
Popeye!"
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13. Why
isn't my favorite Popeye cartoon, "_____," mentioned on your
site?
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Many
different studios have made Popeye cartoons over the years. My site
concentrates on my favorites, which were made by Paramount/Famous Studios,
and has some material about the KFS cartoons (but I'm not an expert on them
and haven't even looked at many of them in years). Maybe your
favorite was made by another studio or is a KFS cartoon I'm not that
familiar with.
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14. Who
are Olive Oyl's relatives?
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In
the comic strips and comic books, her parents are Cole and Nana Oyl, her
brother is Castor Oyl, her cousin is Sutra Oyl, her Uncles are Lubry Kent Oyl and Otto Oyl, and in the KFS animated
cartoons her niece is Deezil Oyl.
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15. Who
were the voice actors in the Famous Studios' Popeye cartoons and are they
still alive today?
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Jack
Mercer did the voices of Popeye, Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and some minor
characters. Mae Questel voiced Olive Oyl, Swee'Pea, and some children
and background female characters. Jackson Beck was Bluto, Pierre, the
sheik, the lifeguard, etc. He was also the narrator in cartoons which
used one, and voiced some minor characters as well. Jackson Beck, the
last living "voice," died in 2004. So, none are alive
today.
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16. What branch of
service were Popeye & his friends members of?
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The
comic strip Popeye created by Segar was never in the Armed Forces. The
animated cartoons put Popeye and Bluto both in the navy because of
WWII. Although in one Fleischer cartoon, Many Tanks, and one
Famous Studios' toon, Spinach-Packin' Popeye, Bluto was in the army!! As was
Popeye in Fleischer's I'm In The Army Now!! Fleischer's Popeye
Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves found Popeye serving in the Coast Guard,
as did a KFS cartoon (I think - maybe it was a Hanna-Barbara one) where he
fought the Sea Hag. (Thanks, Terah and CPO
Matthew Boyle, for that Coast Guard info!) After the war, it was never
clearly stated what branch of the service the boys were in, though they
kept their white sailor uniforms. In a few cartoons, they were
pictured aboard the living quarters on a ship, or disembarking after a tour
at sea. In the majority of the cartoons, the whole Armed Services
theme was never brought up.
The Ocean
comic books, which most fans view as apocryphal because they changed so
much of Popeye's back story, put Popeye, Bluto, AND Wimpy in the Navy.
People in
every branch of the military have claimed Popeye and Bluto as their own
throughout the years, due in part, perhaps to promotional or fan material
produced by some of the cartoonists and the fact that servicemen have put
their pictures on aircraft, ships, etc.
For more
comments from military people themselves (or their fans), see my Popeye And The Armed
Forces page.
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17. What
did Popeye eat to make him strong BEFORE spinach?
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In
the comic strip Thimble Theater where Popeye debuted, Segar originally
didn't give any explanation for why Popeye was so tough. Later, as he
kept getting queries about the Sailorman's strength, he had Popeye explain
it by saying that he had eaten spinach every day from the time he was a
lad. (At the time, articles were appearing touting the benefits of
eating spinach.) So, in the "canonical" Popeye sources, he
never ate anything else to get strong.
However, in
the Famous Studios' cartoon, Greek Mirthology, Popeye tells his
nephews the story of his great, great, great, great grandfather
Hercules. In a flashback, Hercules was seen sniffing garlic and
gaining super strength. By the end of the cartoon, though, he had
discovered spinach and switched over to it. Whether the story was
"real" or whether Popeye was just trying to get his nephews to
eat the green veggie is open to debate.
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18. What
ethnicity were Popeye and the other characters supposed to have?
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This
is all speculation, but I've always thought that the animated cartoon
Popeye was a New Englander. In the cartoon, She-Sick Sailors,
there's a sign at the train station near Olive's house that says
Bridgeport, Connecticut. In the Famous Studios' cartoons, Olive
sometimes has a slight New York Jewish accent. Maybe Olive's
ancestors were Russian Jews who came to America.
An emailer pointed out to me that in the live-action
movie, the Oyls sounded sort of Slavic. I
don't know that Popeye's creator, E.C. Segar, ever really said what ethnic
group the Oyls or Popeye himself belonged
to.
And in the
Famous Studios' cartoons, Bluto is said to be from Brooklyn, and many
Fleischer cartoons certainly take place in Depression-era NYC, with all the
characters living there.
So Bluto and
Olive seem to be New Yorkers, now (during the Famous Studios' time frame)
living in Connecticut, while Popeye seems to be a New Englander, who once
lived in the Big Apple. And in some Famous Studios' cartoons, they
all seem to be back in NYC (maybe for a visit or to conduct business). See The
Royal Four-Flusher and Symphony In Spinach for example.
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19. How
did you retain so much info on the cartoons?
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When
I was growing up, in the days before Cable and Satellite TV were common, we
lived between Rochester and Syracuse, NY and received TV broadcasts from
both cities. If the conditions were right, we could also get one from
Canada and, once in a great while, a station from Buffalo. This was
during the time period when Popeye was the most popular cartoon character
on TV and almost every city had at least one station that ran Fleischer,
Famous Studios, and/or KFS toons. So when I was young, I often could,
and did, see Popeye cartoons every day of the week, sometimes several times
during a day. Even up through my college years, Popeye was shown in
the region and I would occasionally catch one of his shows. While I was in
seminary, and then pastoring my first church, in
the New England area, there were stations out of Boston that broadcast the
cartoons. I would sometimes tune in when as I was trying to wake up
in the morning or when I was relaxing after work before supper. As a
result, over my lifetime, I must have seen a cartoon like Snow Place
Like Home hundreds of times. And when Cable TV, Cartoon Network, Superstations, and VCRs came along, I began recording
and collecting the cartoons.
Friends I've
met through the Internet have also helped.
The Official Popeye Fanclub has proved to be a great source of
information for me as well as a way to meet many nice, knowledgeable
people.
Fred Grandinetti's books on Popeye (see the review on his
latest on my Popeye
Book Review page!) have also been a help to me, as well as books on
animation history in general by various authors.
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20. What
are Olive Oyl's vital statistics?
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Please
see my Olive Oyl FAQ
page.
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21. What
day of the week did Wimpy always claim he would pay for his hamburgers on?
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Tuesday.
"I will gladly pay you
Tuesday for a hamburger today."
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22. How old are Popeye
and Olive Oyl supposed to be?
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Popeye
is in his early 40's. He's around 42. In the Thimble Theater
comic strip, Segar let readers know that Popeye was 42 years old. In
the 1953 cartoon, Ace Of Space, when Popeye is made younger by that
Martian "de-aging" machine, you'll notice that the machine sets
his present age at around "40." Segar also established that
Olive Oyl was in her twenties. Maybe this is partly why the Famous
Studios creators adopted the "sweet young thing/Betty Boopish" personality for Ms. Oyl as time went
on. One KFS cartoon took advantage of the characters' age differences
when, in Kiddie Capers, Olive tells Popeye that he's too old for
her. Popeye sure has more Vim, Vigor, And Vitaliky
in his 40s than I do in mine! Must be the spinach. However, to
further muddy the waters, Bud Sagendorf, who did the comic strip and Popeye
comic books for years, said that Popeye is perpetually 34! Thanks
to Shade Ford and Mike Brooks for help with this question.
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23. Who were Olive
Oyl's boyfriends prior to Popeye?
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In
the original comic strip, Olive's former boyfriend was Ham Gravy.
Then she was wooed by Julius J. Herringbone and accidentally kissed Popeye
thinking he was her lover. In one KFS made-for-TV cartoon, we find
out that Brutus was Olive's college beau!!! In the Famous Studios
cartoons Silly Hillbilly and Wigwam Whoopee Olive's
pre-Popeye boyfriends were Bluto and the Indian Chief, respectively.
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24. Who is the large,
muscular, mannish woman in the Popeye cartoons?
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The
character's name you are looking for is Possum Pearl. Famous Studios
even put her in her own non-Popeye related cartoon once. And some
fans believe that Olive's police sergeant in Cops Is Tops was her,
too.
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25. Did Popeye
originate in the country of Malta?
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The
Popeye movie was filmed in Malta, but the character was created in the
United States, and, in the fictional universe he inhabits, he was born in a
typhoon off the coast of Santa Monica, California.
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26. What is Popeye's
last name?
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He
was never given one in Segar's comics, nor in the animated cartoons.
His Pappy said he couldn't remember it.
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27. Does Popeye have
only ONE eye?
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The
answer isn't simple, I'm afraid. The traditional Popeye that appeared
in the comic strips and in the Fleischer cartoons only had one eye.
Popeye's creator said that Popeye lost his eye during the most terrible
fight of his life. But later, in the cartoons made by Famous Studios
and KFS, Popeye would occasionally be drawn with two eyes wide open when he
was expressing surprise or frustration, giving viewers the impression that
he usually is just keeping the one closed or squinting all the time.
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28. What is the name
of Popeye's fictional home town?
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Some
sources call it Sweetwater, some call it Sweethaven.
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29. What is Wimpy's
full name?
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J.
Wellington Wimpy
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30. How long did
Popeye's spinach "fix" last?
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The
Popeye cartoons were never consistent in depicting exactly when Popeye
needed spinach and how long the effects would last. In many, many
cartoons, he is able to do superhuman stunts, withstand lots of punishment,
and escape dangerous situations BEFORE he eats any spinach! And in
other cartoons, like Rodeo Romeo, Popeye The Ace Of Space, and
Toreadorable, he is taking "booster shots" of spinach throughout
the film in order to do anything extraordinary, so obviously, spinach must
wear off!!! Segar's original comic strips made more sense in this
regard. In them, Popeye was just always super strong and invulnerable
because he had eaten spinach all his life. (At the time, spinach was
being touted in the papers as a healthy food and a good source of
iron. Segar picked up on that, so when he was asked, "Why is
Popeye so strong?" he answered, "Because he eats spinach.")
Only rarely, in EXTREME situations, did Segar's Popeye ever need to eat
spinach "on camera."
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31. Didn't Popeye
start out as a character in the Thimble Theater comic strip by E.C. Segar?
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Yes!
The strip was originally about the Oyl family. Popeye was introduced
as a throwaway character necessary for a sailing story line. Then
Segar dropped him. But Popeye was so popular, he was brought back and
eventually took over the strip.
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