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Wheatena Creal
was his sponsot |
Audio Classics Archive
with Terry Salomonson
Popeye on the Radio #3
Popeye on the Radio:
Popeye Goes to the Circus, Popeye Meets Robin Hood,
Popeye Meets a Giant (1936)
Plus, 78 RPM Records:
Popeye Movie Medley -
Radio Popeye Floyd Buckley with Olive Oyl and Orchestra
Popeye the Sailor Man - Billy Murray (1931)
The Popeye radio program was broadcast over three different networks by two sponsors from 1935 to 1938. Wheatena hot cereal first sponsored the show on September 10, 1935 thru March 28, 1936. 87 episodes aired on the NBC Red Network on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7:15pm. Wheatena reportedly paid King Features Syndicate $1,200 per week for the rights to the sailor. The show followed Amos & Andy, one of the most listened to programs in radio history. This desirable lead-in gave Popeye a ready-made audience in prime time. It was also quite unusual and more expensive for a kid's show to be programmed in an evening time slot. A majority of children's episodic programming of the day was broadcast in the cheaper late afternoon for the after-school crowd. |
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Detmar Poppen, a Broadway veteran of light musicals, played Popeye. On
the surface, this appeared to be error in casting. Poppen's impression
of the squint-eyed sailor was only vaguely reminiscent of the familiar
cartoon voices of Billy Costello or Jack Mercer. But apparently,
Wheatena put so much money into the broadcast rights paid to KFS and
into leasing national airtime thru the NBC-WEAF Network that their
remaining budget did not afford them enough money to contract with
Mercer or Mae Questel who voiced Olive Oyl in the cartoons.
Olive Lamoy played Olive Oyl and Charles Lawrence voiced Wimpy in the
shows. These Broadway veterans were also somewhat inept at recreating
their screen counterparts. Child actor Jimmy Donnelly
rounded out the
cast as Matey the Newsboy. Matey was a non-Segar character who filled in
as a poor substitute for Swee'pea (whose limited vocabulary tended not
to work well on radio). One especially redeeming quality of the show was
the wonderful music of Victor Erwin and his Cartoonland Band, whose orchestra also performed on the Fleischer cartoons. A live orchestra was
also an extravagant expense for Wheatena and is virtually unheard of in
typical children's radio programs.
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Apparently as a cost saving measure for the second season, Wheatena
moved the broadcast to another network. CBS aired the program from
August 31, 1936 to February 26, 1937 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
evenings at 7:15pm. Floyd Buckley, a silent screen actor, replaced
Detmar Poppen to voice Popeye in 78 episodes. Otherwise the cast was
unchanged. Once again, reference to spinach was conspicuously absent.
Popeye's familiar refrain from the Sammy Lerner theme song was altered
to say: "Wheatena's me diet, I ax ya to try it, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!"
Unlike other popular kids programming of the day like Little Orphan
Annie and Jack Armstrong which pitched free mail-in offers regularly,
Popeye radio premium offers were scarce. Wheatena did produce three nice
enamel lapel pins of Popeye, Olive and Wimpy, available for boxtops
mailed to their plant in Rahway NJ. The pins are relatively plentiful
today, suggesting response to the offer was strong.
Wheatena decided that they would not renew their sponsorship for a third
season of the Popeye Radio Show when King Features' asking price for the
broadcast rights to the character was raised well beyond what the New
Jersey-based company felt was fair and profitable.
But a year later in the Spring of 1938, Joe Lowe Corporation's Popsicle,
Fudgsicle and Creamsicle advertising signs began springing up at retail
outlets proclaiming "Listen for Popeye on the Radio after May 1st." CBS
again aired the show from May 2, 1938 thru July 29, 1938 on three nights
a week for 15 minutes at 6:15pm. Because of its brief run, references to
who played Popeye and other enlightening background information is still
elusive, outside of the fact Popsicle sponsored 39 episodes. Kids who
saved Joe Lowe brand frozen confection product wrappers could exchange
them for store items, such as the Popeye Pipe Toss game, the Bubble Pipe
set, the harmonica, Jeep and Popeye figurines, as well as other neat toys.
The Popeye Radio Show was definitely targeted to young kids. While there
is little to recommend the show to adult audiences today, just the idea
of Popeye on the radio is extremely intriguing. As a result, Wheatena
and Popsicle advertising items promoting the show are earnestly sought
by collectors of both radio and comic character genres.
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