“Some of the cartoons below may reflect the period in which they were made, when racial stereotypes and prejudices were commonplace. These were wrong then and wrong now, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints at Cartoon Research.”
Did that come through okay? You’d be amazed how many losers get infuriated when a 45-second disclaimer gets onto their unedited classic cartoon collections. Actually, only one panel today, March 17th’s, might cause you to get uncomfortable, but we did promise to run all of them!
March-April 1937 (click to enlarge)
03-03-37
03-10-37
03-17-37
03-24-37
03-31-37
04-14-37
04-21-37
04-27-37
Here are a few samples of what cartoon shorts the Paramount salesmen were pushing to theaters at the time these promotional pieces appeared in print.
Whiffle Piffle and Betty Boop in THE HOT AIR SALESMAN (March 12th 1937)
Popeye in HOSPITALIKY (April 16th 1937)
THAD KOMOROWSKI is a writer, journalist, film restorationist and author of the acclaimed (and recently revised) Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. He blogs at 
So is that statue still there? And does/did it use that same pose?
Still there. But not the same pose.
You be the judge!
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2658
The actual pose is a bit preferable because it it much closer to how the character originally appeared in the comics, given that it is also in honor of E.C. Segar.
Though the Fleischer ad appears to be closer to the spirit of the reason the statue was built–because Crystal City thrived on the spinach industry. Not only that, the original architect who won the contest to build the statue originally depicted a semi-dignified sitting pose while on top a giant can of spinach.
There is a bronze Popeye statue in a small Arkansas town named Alma. (Alma is the location of the company that cans Popeye-brand spinach. Thus the statue.)
It seems that town has even more Popeye tourist attractions. It has (or rather had) a water tower painted to be “The World’s Largest Can of Spinach,” a horribly grotesque statue or Popeye created in 1987, and a 2007 bronze statue over a fountain that is the most Fleischer-esque of them all.
“Freak” Popeye can be seen here http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/8416
Also seems that the hometown of E.C. Segar (Chester, Ill) has been ambitiously creating stone statues of nearly every noteable major and minor character or Segar’s creative career throughout the town.
Meh, I’ve already seen the city from the back of a patrol wagon…
Mike Kazaleh connected the dots on the 3/31cartoon above:
I also tried it on MS Paint out of curiosity. Was thinking the whole time “who would they have the audacity to promote above Popeye?” Figured it out early on, but I admit that it had me fooled.
Speaking of Betty Boop, just got the final Olive DVD. There are some less-than-pristine prints, but what really bothers me is how the top of the frame of “Snow White” is cropped off — you lose some of Koko’s head turning into a bottle, among other things. I’ve seen bootlegs with the same problem. Is this the only way that short exists?
No, it isn’t the only way to see SNOW-WHITE. Even the framing on the old laser was preferable.
That Olive series started flaky on Volume 1, improved on 2, and then collapsed on 3. I bought all of them on Blu Ray, which was a total waste since they didn’t restore or improve anything. In fact I’ve seen better prints on the old Republic VHS collection. This was a rip off. It will probably serve to further delay a true restoration and sale of a good product.
Did the Fleischer’s promote other series, Color Classics, Screen Songs, with this kind of promotion art? Or just Popeye and Betty.
No to the Screen Songs. But, yes, they did promotional panels for others besides Popeye and Betty. Keep watching this column!
The “infuriation” is somewhat justified. Getting offended is purely a 100% choice. Political correctness is wrong now and will stay wrong in the future.