my favorite sailor

Popeye was a great man with a most appropriate motto- “I am what I am.” This is a good thing to remember, since you are indeed what you are. You shouldn’t change for anyone and should be proud to be your unique individual. A week after the 79th anniversary of his first appearance in the comic strip, Thimble Theater, on January 17, 1929, I find it necessary to pay a small tribute to my favorite tough-guy sailor. To take a look at where everything started… After Thimble Theater moved from its initial focus of Olive Oyl and her boyfriend, Harold Hamgravy, it had a comedy-adventure style featuring Olive, Ham Gravy, and Olive's enterprising brother, Castor Oyl. Popeye was first introduced as a minor character, hired by Castor Oyl and Ham to crew a ship for a voyage to Dice Island, the location of a casino owned by the crooked gambler Fadewell. Castor intended to break the bank at the casino using the unbeatable good luck conferred by stroking the hairs on the head of Bernice the Whiffle Hen. Weeks later, on the trip back, Popeye was shot many times by a stooge of Fadewell's but survived by rubbing Bernice's head (the original source of his strength before he later benefited from the superhuman powers of spinach).

In 1933, the comic strip characters were adapted into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. In 1935, Popeye was deemed more popular than Mickey Mouse! Production continued through 1957. Many of you probably don’t know the following tidbits of information I’m about to share about the lovable animated tough guy who loved spinach, so enjoy. The cartoon character “Popeye” was actually based on a real person named Frank "Rocky" Fiegel, a tough guy who was quite similar to Popeye physically. Popeye, originally from his hometown of Sweethaven, is 34 years old, weighs 158 lbs, and is 5 feet 6 inches tall, and has superhuman strength when he eats spinach. Normally, Popeye can lift or press approximately 4,000 lb, and when amplified by spinach, he can lift or press about 36 tons. He also has a speech impediment (a common character-distinguishing device in early cartoons). Popeye's father, the degenerate Poopdeck Pappy, abandoned Popeye and did not share his son's moral righteousness. Popeye was married for over 77 years to Olive Oyl, and was the adoptive parent of Swee’Pea. He also had four nephews: Peepeye, Poopeye, Pipeye, and Pupeye.