Popeye always pops in at the Spinach Festival in Lenexa, Kan.

During the 1930s, The Kansas City Star labeled rural Lenexa, Kan., as the “Spinach Capital of the World,” saying the soil around Lenexa was “perfect for the crop.”

The ability of local farmers to produce “high-quality spinach helped the community survive and thrive during the Depression,” local historians say. And the community rode a crest of popularity attributed to the arrival of Popeye the Sailor in 1929 as a national comic strip character. Eating spinach gave him superpowers.

 

Much of the spinach grown in the Lenexa area during this period was shipped by rail to big canning factories located in Chicago, Ill., bringing premium prices…and profits…to farm families in the Lenexa area.

Interestingly, the first white settler in this section of the Kansas Territory in 1857 was 20-year-old James Butler Hickok, a farm boy from Illinois. He staked a claim for 160 acres and was hired as a township constable. 

Later in life, Hickok engaged in other pursuits…under the name of “Wild Bill Hickok.”

 

In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed while playing five-card stud poker in a saloon in Deadwood, located in the Black Hills region of the Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota), by Jack McCall.

 The hand of cards that Hickok supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the “deadman’s hand” – two pairs: black aces and eights. The hole card was unknown.

A town began to form in 1869 along the north-south rail line of the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad, which ran for about 150 miles, connecting Kansas City, Fort Scott and Baxter Springs near the Oklahoma boundary.

The land for the railroad was donated by orchard owners Charles and Sarah Bradshaw. Some folks wanted to name the place “Bradshaw,” but the couple modestly declined the offer.

Instead, the community became “Lenexa,” derived from the name of a Native American member of the Shawnee Nation. She was Na-Nex-Se, wife of Chief Black Hoof. 

A statue in the center of the city commemorates her life. (The Shawnee people had relocated from Ohio in the mid-1820s.)

 

By 1930, the official population of Lenexa in Johnson County was 452. Today, 60,375 people reside in Lenexa, which has emerged as a popular suburb within the Kanas City metropolitan area.

About 600 farms are said to remain within the county, and there is pressure to ensure that some reasonable balance in land use planning is attained, thereby preserving an agricultural presence in Johnson County.

The Lenexa community continues to honor its spinach heritage with the annual Lenexa Spinach Festival, a free event that features the “World’s Largest Spinach Salad.” 

The recipe calls for 150 pounds of spinach, 600 mushrooms, 100 cloves of garlic and 12 jars of bacon bits – dressed with 75 cups of vinegar and 50 cups of salad oil.

This year’s festival is on Saturday, Sept. 12. It’s a full day of spinach-related activities and fun, including recipe contests with cash prizes. Available for purchase is the Lenexa Historical Society’s cookbook “Spinach Tyme,” which includes hundreds of food dishes and recipes from past winners.

 

Festival goers can enjoy cooking demonstrations and sample spinach dips and spinach smoothies. Additionally, there are arts and crafts vendors on site as well as a food court and live music.

Popeye, Olive Oyl and other familiar characters from the comic strips and cartoons will be making their rounds to add to the festivities. 

A highlight is always the “Swee’Pea Baby Crawling Contest.”

 

Children can enjoy crafts, inflatables, face painting, balloon twisting and age-appropriate games and activities.

Also, there’s a kids’ cane pole fishing tournament for channel catfish, bluegill, sunfish and largemouth bass as well as a rock skipping contest at Rose’s Pond within Lenexa’s Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park.

 

(Sar-Ko-Par was another Native American. He was a Creek warrior who served in the U.S. military during the Creek War of 1836. After his death, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln deeded 160 acres of land to Sar-Ko-Par’s heirs in payment for his military service.)

You’ll find Popeye statues in Texas and Arkansas

Where is the “Spinach Capital of the World?” Depends on who you ask.

 

It could be Crystal City, Texas (population 5,840). Folks there erected a statue of the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor in 1937 in front of city hall, financed by local spinach growers.

 

Popeye was created by Elzie Crisler (E. C.) Segar for his King Features Syndicate comic strip “Thimble Theatre” in 1929. 

Popeye is usually depicted with a sailor’s cap, corn cob pipe, prominent cleft chin, a squinty eye and bulging forearms bearing anchor tattoos.

He is distinguished by the superhuman strength and combat prowess that he gains from eating spinach. The Popeye comic strip boosted the popularity of spinach and led to increased demand. Hence, Popeye was deemed an ambassador for “all things spinachy.”

As the county seat of Zavala County, Crystal City was a major stop along the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad. The community is located about 120 miles southwest of San Antonio and about 50 miles from the Mexican border.

 

The region is known as the “Winter Garden District,” and spinach is a major agricultural crop.

The California Packing Corporation (later Del Monte) built an expansive spinach cannery near Crystal City in 1945, believed to be one of the world’s largest. Over the years, the processing plant was enlarged several times, and other vegetables were added to the product mix.

The Del Monte cannery became the cornerstone of the local agricultural economy in Crystal City.

Meanwhile, Alma, Ark. (population 6,115), also staked its claim as the “Spinach Capital of the World.” Within the city’s Popeye Park is a bronze statue of Popeye, who is hoisting a can of spinach.

 

(This statue was installed in 2007, replacing a previous fiberglass version that had been created in 1987.)

Alma, in Crawford County, is located within the fertile Arkansas River Valley on the edge of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of a multi-county Northwest Arkansas region that has a rich spinach heritage. 

One hundred years ago, Earl and Shadye Allen formed Allen Canning Company to process tomatoes in 1926 in Siloam Springs in Benton County, Ark. (One of Allen’s largest canning plants was located in Alma.)

By 1976, the family-owned Allen Canning Company was handling more than 100 products and ranked in the top 10 canneries in the world. 

It also claimed the title of world’s largest independent food processor. The company declared: “A field picked in the morning should be canned and shipped that afternoon.”

 

In 1978, Allen Canning Company acquired the Popeye spinach brand from Steele Canning Company, which was founded by Joe M. Steele in Lowell (also in Benton County, Ark.).

In 1966, Steele had licensed the Popeye character for its canned spinach line. The label contained a full-color illustration of a smiling Popeye eating his spinach.

 

“It is our belief that the introduction of the Popeye label will create a larger consumer interest in spinach,” Joe Steele said. “Spinach ranks seventh in annual vegetable sales, and we think it should be higher than this.”

In 1991, Alma city officials authorized a distinctive green paint job for its 1-million-gallon ground level water storage tank to create the “world’s largest can of spinach.” It’s in plain view of motorists traveling east on Interstate 40.

 

Allens’ brands, including Popeye Spinach and Veg-All, have been part of McCall Farms since 2018. Based in Effingham, S.C., McCall Farms specializes in producing “farm-fresh Southern-style” canned vegetables and fruits that are sold nationwide.

 

Other familiar McCall Farms brands include Glory Foods, Margaret Holmes, Peanut Patch Boiled Peanuts and Bruce’s Yams.

Psst. They also grow spinach in Lenexa, Kan. 

Popeye’s theme song and characters live on

Popeye the Sailor’s corn cob pipe doubled as his “toot-toot” whistle, which was popularized in the 1933 “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” theme song, written by Sammy Lerner, a native of Romania, who had come to the United States as a child.

 

Working in New York City in the 1920s, Lerner wrote songs for vaudeville performers such as Sophie Tucker. He also contributed lyrics to the Ziegfeld Follies, the series of elaborate theatrical revues performed on Broadway.

Lerner contributed the English lyrics to “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It),” sung by Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film “The Blue Angel.” (The song was covered by the Beatles in 1962.)

Lerner was well known for his collaborations with Fleischer Studios. In addition to the Popeye theme song, he wrote Betty Boop’s signature song “Don’t Take My Boo-oop-a-doop Away” in 1932, along with Sammy Timberg.

 

Many of the Popeye cartoon themes revolve around the antics of Bluto, a massive, bearded sailor who constantly attempts to sabotage Popeye and woo his girlfriend, Olive Oyl. 

Bluto is defined by his brute strength and underhanded tricks. He is usually defeated when Popeye consumes his muscle-building spinach.

 While Bluto is the primary physical bully, the Sea Hag is considered Popeye’s actual “archenemy.” She’s a villain with a pet vulture, Bernard, who sails the Seven Seas in her vessel, The Black Barnacle, intent on tormenting Popeye.

 

Popeye’s mother, Irene, is seldom seen, but his father, Poopdeck Pappy, became a traveling companion. He is characterized as an ornery old coot who is always scheming.

 

J. Wellington Wimpy is an artful sponger who is always mooching hamburgers. His catchphrase is: “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” But Tuesday never comes. Wimpy is a round man with a little mustache who wears a suit, tie and bowler hat.

 

In creating Wimpy for the original comic strip, artist Elzie Crisler (E. C.) Segar patterned the character after J. William Schuchert, who ran the Chester (Ill.) Opera House, and was Segar’s first boss. A generous man, Schuchert paid for Segar’s art lessons.

 

Swee’Pea is the infant boy who is introduced as Olive Oyl’s cousin…or as an orphan prince who was delivered to Popeye’s doorstep and becomes his adopted son. The comic strips and cartoons aren’t always synchronized, but Popeye frequently rescues the child from dangerous situations.

 

Popeye also had four nephews: Peepeye, Pipeye, Poopeye and Pupeye. Unlike their uncle, the boys dislike spinach, though they share his interest in fist fighting.

 

Eugene the Jeep is a mysterious animal from Africa with magical abilities that was gifted to Popeye by Olive Oyl’s Uncle Ben Zene Oyl. 

Jeep is a yellow creature about the size of a dog who walks on his hind legs. He has a bear-like head and ears but a large nose and long tail. Jeep can cross into the fourth dimension, disappearing from one place and reappearing in another.

Today, the Popeye characters are featured among 19 statues found along the “Popeye & Friends Character Trail” in Chester, Ill.

Segar was born in Chester in 1894, and the city raised $10,000 in 1977 to erect a 6-foot-tall, 900-pound bronze statue of Popeye in Segar Memorial Park as a tribute to the cartoonist.

 

Chester, the county seat of Randolph County, is located on a bluff above the Mississippi River in southwestern Illinois. Chester’s population is about 6,730.

“Spinach Can Collectibles” is the name of the free Popeye museum inside the old opera house in downtown Chester. 

More than 2,000 pieces of Popeye memorabilia are on display. There’s also a well-stocked gift shop.

“Popeye” is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. The script was written by Jules Feiffer.

 The movie stars Robin Williams as Popeye the Sailor and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. Its story follows Popeye’s adventures as he arrives in the town of Sweethaven.

 

Popeye became an animated cartoon hero in 1933

Popeye the Sailor jumped from the comics section of newspapers into the world of animated films in 1933, when King Features Syndicate licensed the character to Fleischer Studios in New York City.

 

Brothers Max Fleischer (shown above) and Dave Fleischer (shown below) were intent upon transforming Popeye into a movie star.

 

Entertainment historian Fred Grandinetti, who has written extensively about Popeye’s development, said Popeye was introduced to audiences as “a pugnacious, wisecracking cartoon sailor who possesses superhuman strength after ingesting an always-handy can of spinach.”

 

“Popeye is a scrappy little seaman with bulging forearms, a squinty eye, and a screwed-up face, punctuated with an ever-present pipe in his mouth.”

 

“He is always ready for a fight instead of a reasonable discussion, has a gravelly voice and is constantly mumbling under his breath. 

His credo is: ‘I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I am. I’m Popeye the sailor man. I’m strong to the finich cause I eats me spinach.’”

“His girlfriend is the gangly Olive Oyl, for whose attention Popeye vies constantly with Bluto, his bearded, hulking rival,” Grandinetti wrote.

 

Popeye’s cartoon debut in 1933 was a bit of a cameo appearance in a “Betty Boop” short produced by the Fleischers. 

Vocalist Billy Costello of Providence, R.I., commonly known on the vaudeville circuit as “Red Pepper Sam,” was the original gruff-sounding voice of Popeye in the animated cartoon shorts.

 

In 1935, Jack Mercer of Worthington, Ind., took over as Popeye’s voice actor.

A source at Amazon’s IMDb (Internet Movie Database) said: “Mercer proved to be a superior comedian who brought engaging warmth and humor to the character.

Many of Popeye’s funniest under-the-breath mutterings – the puns, malapropisms and wisecracks – were freely ad-libbed by Mercer during the recording sessions.”

 

Mercer continued in that role for nearly 50 years; he was still performing in 1984 when he died from cancer at age 74. (Mercer also was the voice of cartoon character “Felix the Cat.”)

Popeye’s first two-reel Technicolor film, “Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor,” was produced by Fleischer Studios in 1936.

A veteran mariner, Popeye joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1933, before he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941.

 

Popeye’s most famous role as a Coast Guardsman came in 1937, when he appeared in the two-reel feature “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves.” Popeye was deployed to the Middle East to foil the evil plans of Bluto and his band of 40 thugs.

Popeye’s 100th animated cartoon was titled “The Mighty Navy” (1941).

As a fresh recruit, Popeye finds his ship surrounded by eight enemy battleships. He grabbed a cannon in his bare hands and fired away, sinking the entire armada of attackers as well as wiping out an aircraft carrier and all its planes.

And then…when Popeye noticed a huge destroyer approaching, he munched a bunch of spinach and launched himself through the torpedo tube, proceeding to sink the oncoming enemy vessel with only a blow from his fist. Instantly, Popeye became a war hero.

 

This marked the first appearance of Popeye in his new “Navy whites” uniform, which would become his standard outfit going forward. 

Popeye became an inspirational symbol for the Navy, with his image used for squadron insignias during World War II.

Popeye cartoons debuted on national television in 1956, featuring the extensive library of 234 theatrical shorts that were now the property of Paramount Pictures, having absorbed Fleischer Studios in 1941.

 

Popeye quickly became the most popular children’s series on TV.

In order to cash in on “Popeye mania,” King Features Syndicate began to crank out its own Popeye TV episodes, producing another 220 titles.