OK, they got that piece of trivia wrong

[J Lee]

Since I posted this on another thread on Sunday, I figured I'd defend myself on this one -- at the start of the second half hour of The Popeye Show tonight, they said 1938's "Cops Is Always Right" was the last Fleischer Popeye to feature the ship door opening.

Not quite. "Child Psykolojiky" (1941) was the last Popeye cartoon with the ship door opening titles. "Cops Is Always Right" was both the last cartoon to feature Adolph Zukor's name in the opening titles and the last Flesicher Popeye to be done in New York before the move to Miami.

[Argus Sventon]

Mae Questel refused to move to Miami, so Margie Hines replaced her in the Popeye cartoons. Also, this was the main reason why Betty Boop retired.

[J Lee]

Actually, Questel already had missed doing the voice of Olive in a couple of Popeyes -- "The Jeep" and "Plumbing is a Pipe" -- which were done before the move from New York to Miami. Margie Hines did the voice of Betty Boop in "Sally Swing" a 1938er that also was done before the move to Miami and did her voice there as well, while Questel did voice Olive in one of the last Popeyes before the pilgramage south, "A Date To Skate," which was a late 1938 release.

Questel did refuse to move south to Miami, but why the voice changes to Olive and Betty happened in 1938 while the studio was in New York someone else will have to answer.

[Mibbitmaker]

Did Margie Hyndes voice Olive during circa 1940-1944 period where, to me anyway, it seems like the same Olive voice as the Questel period in the '30s ? And, if so, did Mae come back around the same time the series went to color(1944), when the Zazu Pitts voice was abandoned?

I prefer the Zazu voice myself(over both the early, Bronx-like voice and the later). I've noticed, when Mae(definately her) did the "new" Olive voice, she sounded just a touch more like Betty Boop than the old one; just a certain quality, maybe Mae's real voice, those, again, the c.1934-1938/9, didn't betray the vocal element I'm refering to. (this'd be easier to convey talking or playing spoundbytes, I admit)

[Paul Penna]

Originally posted by Mibbitmaker
Did Margie Hyndes voice Olive during circa 1940-1944 period where, to me anyway, it seems like the same Olive voice as the Questel period in the '30s ? And, if so, did Mae come back around the same time the series went to color(1944), when the Zazu Pitts voice was abandoned?

Though she was apparently occasionally billed as "Zazu," Ms. Pitts' first name is properly spelled "ZaSu," including the capitalized S. Her aunts, Eliza and Susan, both wanted the newborn named after themselves, so in order not to slight either, ZaSu's mother combined portions of both in that manner. That also means it's not pronounced "zah-zoo," but "zah-soo."

[J Lee]

Hyndes did the voice on at least one of the color Popeye cartoons, "Marry-Go-Round," and someone else I believe did the Latino Olive voice for "We're On Our Way to Rio." Both those cartoons may have been voicetracked in Miami before the studio returned to New York, though I wouldn't want to bet the rent money on that.

Mae Questel returned to do Olive for 1944's "The Anvil Chorus Girl," which was also the debut cartoon for Jackson Beck as the voice of Bluto.

As for the Zazu voice, it was used only in the very early Popeyes. Questel said she always did the voice of Olive and in the early ones they may have been trying for a non-Betty Boop toned voice, and that same voice appears in an early Betty Boop cartoon as a voice recoding phonograph (well anyway, as the singing mouse inside the phonograph).

I doubt the Fleischers would have brought in another voice acrtess besides Questel for such a little role, but -- and now we're really geting into trivia here -- in the middle of all of the Zazu/Olive cartoons is 1933's "I Eats My Spinach" which features Popeye and Bluto battling at a rodeo for Olive, who is speaking in her normal voice. Then, it's back to the Zazu/Olive voice until late 1934, when the regular Mae Questel voice for Olive returns for good. Why they would switch from one voice to another, and then back and then back again is another one of those unanswered Fleischer Studio mysteries.