Back to School With Popeye at Penneys – 1935

Fans of pop culture know that during the 1930s, Popeye the Sailor was more popular with kids than Mickey Mouse. Because of his animated cartoons (which beat the ever-cheerful Disney rodent in polls taken by theater owners) and his daily comic strip (drawn by cartoonist/creator Ezie Segar), the one-eyed, spinach-eating sailor was truly a national sensation. 

Thus it's not too surprising to see Popeye featured in this Back-to-School ad for Penney's that ran in the Lorain Journal back on August 28, 1935. Since it was assumed that rough-and-tumble Popeye had great appeal to little boys, most of the ad space is taken up with boys' clothes: shirts, knickers, sweaters, slacks, golf hose and school oxfords. The inclusion of girls' tub frocks seem like an afterthought.

The main drawing point of the ad was a complimentary ticket to the Warner Bros. Palace Theater on Friday, August 30th and Saturday, Aug. 31st. Lorain schools started the next week, so it was sort of a last hurrah for summer vacation.

And what was showing at the Palace on those two nights? None other than the just-released W.C. Fields comedy Man on the Flying Trapeze. 

Despite the fact that it sounds like a circus movie, the plot was no doubt a familiar one to the great comedian's fans. He plays a henpecked husband with a shrewish wife (and nasty mother-in-law) and a loving daughter. And happily (like most of his movies), his character come out on top and there's a happy ending.

But what about Popeye?

If you look closely at the ad, there is indeed a Popeye cartoon as part of that night's program. It doesn't say which one it was, but a football-themed Popeye cartoon was released to theaters that very weekend. Here's a clip of You Gotta Be a Football Hero featuring Popeye's football team versus that of Bluto's. The game is already underway and Popeye is getting clobbered. Fickle Olive isn't even rooting for him!