Popeye
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Popeye the Sailor is a fictional hero famous for appearing in comic strips and animated films as well as numerous TV shows. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar, and first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. As of January 1, 2009, Segar's character of Popeye (though not the various films, TV shows, theme music, and other media based on him) has entered the public domain in most countries.
Copyrights
While most of the Paramount Popeye catalog remained unavailable on video, a handful of Popeye cartoons from the 1930s through the 1950s had fallen into public domain and were made available on numerous low budget VHS tapes and later DVDs. Among these cartoons are a handful of the Fleischer black and whites, several 1950s Famous shorts, and all three Popeye Color Specials. When Turner Entertainment acquired the cartoons in 1986, a long and laborious legal struggle with King Features kept the majority of the original Popeye shorts from official video releases for more than twenty years. King Features instead opted to release a DVD boxed set of the 1960s made-for-television Popeye cartoons, which it retained the rights to, in 2004. In the meantime, home video rights to the Turner Entertainment library were transferred from MGM/UA Home Video to Warner Home Video in 1999.
Spinach
Early references to spinach in the Fleischer cartoons and subsequently in further stories of Popeye are attributed to the publication in 1870 of a study by Dr. E von Wolf which, because of a misprint, attributed to spinach ten times its actual iron content. The error was discovered in 1937 but not widely publicized until T.J. Hamblin wrote about it in the British Medical Journal in 1981.
The popularity of Popeye helped boost sales of the leafy vegetable and the spinach-growing community of Crystal City, Texas, erected a statue of the character in recognition of Popeye's positive effects on the spinach industry. There is another Popeye statue in Segar's hometown, Chester, Illinois, and a third in Alma, Arkansas, which claims to be "The Spinach Capital of the World," and is home to Allen Canning which markets Popeye-branded canned spinach.
In addition to Allen Canning's Popeye spinach, Popeye Fresh Foods markets bagged, fresh spinach with Popeye characters on the package.
In 2006, when spinach contaminated with E. coli was accidentally sold to the public, many editorial cartoonists lampooned the affair by featuring Popeye in their cartoons.
