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Yesterday was the birth of
Li'l Abner, so to speak. Written and illustrated by
Al Capp (1909–1979), the strip was published on August 13, 1934, the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934, through November 13, 1977.
The strip featured an amazing array of totally unbelievable but lovable (more or less) characters, the lead, of course,
Li'l Abner, his sweetheart Daisy Mae Yokum, his mother Mammy Yokum, his father Pappy Yokum, Honest Abe Yokum Daisey and Abner's son, his brother Tiny Yokum, Salomey the pet pig, Moonbeam McSwine and her father Moonshine McSwine, Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat moonshine purveyors,
Senator Jack S. (Jackass) Phogbound, Stupefyin' Jones: A walking
aphrodisiac who is very dangerous on
Sadie Hawkins Day, the tycoon Bashington T.
Bullmoose, the
cannibal Wolf Gal, the wrestler Earthquake McGoon, Evil Eye Fleagle (the name says it all) and there are dozens of many other characters as well as mythical creatures such as the
Shmoos.
One of the offshoots of
Li'l Abner was
Fearless Fosdick, a comic strip-within-the-strip parody of the
Chester Gould plainclothes detective,
Dick Tracy.
Fearless Fosdick was licensed for use in an advertising campaign for
Wildroot Cream-Oil, a popular men's
hair tonic.
Fosdick's profile on advertising displays became a prominent fixture in
barbershops across America — advising readers to "Get Wildroot
Cream-Oil, Charlie!" A series of ads appeared in newspapers, magazines
and comic books featuring Fosdick's battles with Anyface, a murderous
master of disguise. Anyface was always given away by his
dandruff and messy hair. I used
Wildroot Cream-Oil from the mid 50's until the mid 80's.
The local for these characters, which includes every stereotype of
Appalachia, is
Dogpatch the impoverished community which consists mostly of ramshackle log cabins, turnip fields, pine trees,
and hogwallows. Most Dogpatchers are shiftless, ignorant scoundrels and
thieves. The men are too lazy to work, and Dogpatch girls are desperate
enough to chase them. Those who farm their turnip fields watch turnip
termites swarm by the billions every year to devour Dogpatch's only crop
(along with their homes, their livestock, and all their clothing). Capp intended for suffering Americans in the midst of the Great
Depression, to laugh at the residents of Dogpatch even worse off than
themselves. In his words, Dogpatch was "an average stone-age community nestled in a
bleak valley, between two cheap and uninteresting hills somewhere."
The characters of
Li'l Abner were brought to life several times in many ways: in 1946 Capp wrote a song for Daisy Mae, entitled,
(Li'l Abner) Don't Marry That Girl!! and it was recorded by
Frank Sinatra as well as
Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers (their version was the best). The group also recorded the theme song for the television series,
Little Lulu.
Beginning in 1944,
Li'l Abner was adapted into a series of color theatrical
cartoons by
Screen Gems for
Columbia Pictures, directed by Sid Marcus, Bob Wickersham, and Howard Swift.
In 1952,
Fearless Fosdick was incorporated into a short-lived TV series. The
puppet show was created and directed by puppeteer Mary Chase, written by Everett Crosby, and voiced by John Griggs, Gilbert Mack, and
Jean Carson.
Fearless Fosdick premiered on Sunday afternoons on NBC; 13 episodes featuring the Mary Chase
marionettes were produced.
In 1956, the musical,
Li'l Abner, opened on
Broadway on November 15, 1956, at the
St. James Theatre where it ran for 693 performances. The producers conducted a long search for the actor to play the title
role: over 400 actors auditioned for the part, and at one time,
Dick Shawn was reported to be their preferred choice. However, the producers eventually chose unknown singer
Peter Palmer, who had been serving in an army entertainment unit; Panama and Frank saw him perform on a segment of
The Ed Sullivan Show featuring talented American soldiers. Palmer was a trained singer with a music degree from the
University of Illinois, where he had also played football; at 6'4" and 228 pounds, Palmer had the right "look" to play Li'l Abner.
In 1995 the United States postal service issued a series that featured some of the denizens of Dogpatch featuring Daisy Mae and Abner.
Sadie Hawkins Day is an American folk event and pseudo-holiday originated by Capp's
hillbilly comic strip Li'l Abner (1934–1977). The annual comic strip storyline inspired real-world
Sadie Hawkins events,
the premise of which is that women ask men for a date or dancing.
"Sadie Hawkins Day" was introduced in the comic strip on November 15,
1937; the storyline ran until the beginning of December. The storyline was revisited the following October/November, and inspired a fad on college campuses. By 1939,
Life reported that 201 colleges in 188 cities held a
Sadie Hawkins Day event. Capp finally set the date for Sadie Hawkins Day as November 26, in his last
Li'l Abner daily strip on November 5, 1977.
John Updike called Li'l Abner a "hillbilly
Candide" said that the strip's "richness of social and philosophical commentary approached the
Voltairean." Capp has been compared to
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Jonathan Swift,
Laurence Sterne, and
François Rabelais.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and
Time called him "the
Mark Twain of cartoonists".
Charlie Chaplin,
William F. Buckley,
Al Hirschfeld,
Harpo Marx,
Russ Meyer,
John Kenneth Galbraith,
Ralph Bakshi,
Shel Silverstein,
Hugh Downs,
Gene Shalit,
Frank Cho,
Daniel Clowes, and
Queen Elizabeth are all reportedly fans of
Li'l Abner.
Li'l Abner characters were often featured in mid-century American
advertising campaigns including
Grape-Nuts cereal,
Kraft caramels,
Ivory soap,
Oxydol,
Duz and
Dreft detergents,
Orange Crush,
Nestlé cocoa, Cheney neckties, Pedigree pencils, Strunk chainsaws, U.S. Royal tires,
Head & Shoulders shampoo,
General Electric light bulbs and
Fruit of the Loom.
Wildroot Cream-Oil:
Fearless Fosdick was licensed for use in an advertising campaign for Wildroot Cream-Oil, a popular men's
hair tonic.
Fosdick's profile on advertising displays became a prominent fixture in
barbershops across America — advising readers to "Get Wildroot
Cream-Oil, Charlie!" A series of ads appeared in newspapers, magazines
and comic books featuring Fosdick's battles with Anyface, a murderous
master of disguise. Anyface was always given away by his
dandruff and messy hair.
Dogpatch characters were heavily licensed throughout the 1940s and 1950s: the main cast was produced as a set of six
hand puppets and 14-inch (360 mm) dolls by Baby Barry Toys in 1957. A 10-figure set of carnival
chalkware
statues of Dogpatch characters was manufactured by Artrix Products in
1951, and Topstone introduced a line of 16 rubber Halloween masks prior
to 1960. After the introduction of the Shmoos, they were licensed
everywhere in 1948 and 1949. A garment factory in
Baltimore made a line of
Schmoo
apparel — including "Shmooveralls", Shmoo dolls, clocks, watches,
jewelry, earmuffs, wallpaper, fishing lures, air fresheners, soap, ice
cream, balloons, ashtrays, comic books, records, sheet music, toys,
games, Halloween masks, salt and pepper shakers, decals, pinbacks,
tumblers, coin banks, greeting cards, planters, neckties, suspenders,
belts, curtains, and fountain pens. In one year, Shmoo merchandise
generated over $25 million in sales. Close to a hundred licensed Shmoo
products from 75 different manufacturers were produced, some of which
sold five million units each.
Capp once told one of his assistants that he knew
Li'l Abner had finally "arrived" when it was first pirated as a pornographic
Tijuana bible parody in the mid-1930s.
The Adventures of a Fuller Brush Man, published c. 1936
Li'l Abner ran until November 13, 1977, when Capp retired. Capp, a lifelong chain smoker, died from
emphysema two years later at age 70, at his home in
South Hampton, New Hampshire, on November 5, 1979.
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
YouTube links:
Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers ~
