Popeye the Sailor Man

Debuting in December of 1919, King Features Syndicate’s “Thimble Theatre” comics originally centered around the adventures of Olive Oyl, her boyfriend Harold Hamgravy, and her brother Castor Oyl.

Popeye first appeared as a side character nearly a decade later, on January 17, 1929, when Castor Oyl and Hamgravy needed to hire a sailor. Initially, Olive Oyl detested Popeye, but in due time he won her over and she dumped Hamgravy for him. Olive Oyl wasn’t the only one who fell in love with Popeye: The scrappy sailor proved to so popular that he soon became the main character, and the strip was renamed to “Thimble Theatre starring Popeye” in 1931, and eventually just “Popeye” years later.

The comic strip was first created by cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar, then taken over by his assistant Bud Sagendorf after Segar’s untimely death in 1938. In 1933, Fleischer Studios adapted the characters into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts starring Popeye the Sailor for Paramount Pictures.

Spinach was first referenced as the source of Popeye’s strength in Segar’s comics on June 26, 1931. In the early comics, Popeye’s power was derived from petting a magical whiffle hen named Bernice, who originally belonged to Olive Oyl’s brother Castor Oyl. In fact, the leafy green was rarely actually mentioned in the comic strip. It was Fleischer Studio’s animated cartoons which really advanced this idea. American spinach consumption rose 30% during this time, likely thanks to Popeye’s influence. Some sources argue that the American government may have encouraged the advancement of this storyline in an effort to promote the consumption to canned goods, particularly spinach (which was mistakenly believed to be extremely high in iron, due to a typo in and 1870 scientific repot) as a meat substitute during the Great Depression.

While it was important to teach kids about healthy eating, it was also important to teach them financial skills like saving pocket change: Check out the c.1930-1950 Popeye dime register banks available in our Vintage Toy Shop. Popeye gave rise to a number of other licensed products such as lunchboxes, sand pails, tins and toy vehicles. Check out some of these vintage Popeye toys and collectibles in the gallery below!

Sources:

Cellania, Miss. Oct 1, 2015. “Popeye and the Great Spinach Myth”. Neatorama. https://www.neatorama.com/2015/10/01/Popeye-and-the-Great-Spinach-Myth/

Deezen, Eddie. Dec 3, 2012. “13 Interesting Popeye the Sailorman Facts”. Today I Found Out. https:// www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/12/popeye-facts/

First Versions. n.d. “Popeye (Comics)”. Accessed June 19, 2020. https://www.firstversions.com/2015/06/popeye-comics.html

Marshall, Rick. Jan 17, 2014. ” 15 Things to Know About Popeye on His 85th Anniversary”. Mental Floss. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/54568/15-things-know-about-popeye-his-85th-anniversary

Wikipedia. “Popeye”. Last updated Feb 7, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye

GIF from: https://popeye.fandom.com/wiki/Popeye