The Sailor Man came to the small screen in September 1956…
Popeye has been around for nearly 100 years — debuting Jan. 17, 1929, in the newspaper comic Thimble Theatre — but for a lot of us, he was a TV cartoon first and foremost.
I watched Popeye after school on New York’s WPIX/Channel 11 and knew he was a long-established character (the black-and-white shorts were a dead giveaway), but even I was a little taken aback when 13th Dimension reader and Popeye aficionado Fred Grandinetti pointed out to me that the spinach-eatin’ Sailor Man’s 70th anniversary on the boob tube was upon us.
According to Fred, most markets began running Popeye theatrical shorts — there were 234 films from Fleischer and Famous Studios from Paramount Pictures — on Sept. 10, 1956, but the earliest was Sept. 2. So, he’s put together a selection of ads and print features touting the character’s early TV success.
“Popeye became the highest-rated children’s program in 1956 through 1958 (knocked to second place with the TV debut of The Three Stooges),” sez Fred. “The shorts also enhanced the popularity of the adult-hosted children’s show. The success of these cartoons on the small screen led to two more successful Popeye TV cartoon series. All told, there are at least 500 Popeye animated films playing somewhere in the world today (plus on MeTV and YouTube).”
Well, blow me down!
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1957. By Ralph Stein (writer) and Bela “Bill” Zaboly (art).
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MORE
— POPEYE AND HIS PAPA: A Birthday Tribute to the Great E.C. SEGAR. Click here.
— MORRISON MONDAYS: Dig These 13 Eye-Poppin’ Classic POPEYE Toys. Click here.
