The Popeye "oddballs" of 1939

[Vdubdavid]

Here's an idea for the cartoons on the Popeye Show. Since it appears that they've been able to recreate the openings and closings for almost every period except for the 4 "oddballs" from 1939. Well how about CN goes and finds someone who has a 32mm or 16mm print in a collection? Those would probably have the original opening cards!

[J Lee]

I'm sure they've looked, but finding any of the B&W cartoons with original titles is really tough. AAP did a thorough job of eliminating the opening and closing Paramount logos on all the cartoons, and the main Paramount title card page on the 1939-43 B&Ws.

However, AAP also was pretty good about making sure their redone title card page included all the missing credits (as an example, IIRC, Elzie Segar was still listed on the four oddball cartoons' AAP credits, and apprently the original Paramount credits, even though he had died a year earlier. His credit disappeared on the AAP titles with "Never Sock A Baby" which was the first cartoon after the return to the ship door opening). So I suppose if someone had enough time and a digital editor to work with, they could create something close to what it would have looked like, based on the remaining graphic type style and wave background.

BTW -- the other two cartoons they'll have trouble recreating the main title pages for are "Customers Wanted" and "Leave Well Enough Alone." They were the first cartoons done (or at least soundtracked) after the move to Miami, were released right before the four 'oddball' `toons and were the first to replace the "Adolph Zukor Presents" title with "Paramount Presents." But the King Features Syndicate credit is still with the Segar credit on the second title page, with the credits for Dave Fleischer and the animators, instead of at the on the main title page as would be the case from late 1939 to the end of the series. It will be interesting to see how CN handles `em, or if they can find original prints for at least one of those two cartoons.

Even with those minor flaws though, the cartoons still look way better than they did with the AAP openings or with the redone and cut closing titles they use on the LNB&W prints.