Posted on 12/10/2002 6:32:55 AM PST by PJ-Comix
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Have you ever heard of the Shmoo? You can be forgiven your ignorance on this subject since the Shmoo made its brief appearance in the newspaper comics pages over fifty years ago.
The Shmoo was the creation of cartoonist Al Capp in his popular Li'l Abner strip. With much fanfare Capp introduced the Shmoo in August 1948 and for the rest of the year the world went Shmoo crazy.
This creature inspired hundreds of Shmoo clubs all over North America as well as the "Society for the Advancement of the Shmoo." There were dozens of Shmoo products including Shmoo greeting cards, balloons, dolls, toys, jai-alai paddles, belts, suspenders, dairy goods, fountain pens, earrings, neckties, ashtrays, plant holders, soap, and curtains to name just a few. A garment factory in Baltimore turned out a line of Shmoo clothes including Shmooveralls.
The people of 1948 danced to the Shmoo Rhumba and the Shmoo Polka. The Shmoo entered our everyday language through such phrases as "What's Shmoo?" and "Happy Shmoo Year!" The best selling book, "The Life and Times of the Shmoo," was devoured by the reading public. Al Capp was even invited to go on a radio show to debate socialist Norman Thomas on the effect of the Shmoo on modern capitalism. Meanwhile in Germany, the commanders of the Berlin Airlift cabled Capp requesting a dozen inflatible Shmoos to be dropped from transport planes into Berlin as part of "Operation Little Vittles."
By now you are probably wondering why all the fuss over the Shmoo. Well, let me describe the Shmoo. It was a lovable bowling pin-shaped whiskered creature. The Shmoo yielded milk, eggs, cheesecake, and just about anything else you might desire. Shmoo meat when roasted was pork, when broiled it was steak, and when fried it was chicken. The eyes of a Shmoo made good suspender buttons and its whiskers made fine toothpicks. The skin when cut thin served as high quality cloth, cut thick it was leather, and cut in strips it became boards for housing.
Since the Shmoo was fast breeding and lived on practically nothing, it provided for almost all of society's needs. It turned out to be too much of a good thing. The Shmoos gave people all that they desired so the characters of Capp's comic strip quit their jobs. As a result of their indolence, civilization declined. Capp, himself sick of the Shmoo, finally dropped it from his strip early in 1949.
I had totally forgotten Li'l Abner, but I remember Daisy Mae and Sadie Hawkins day.
If you want to see the influence of Al Capp's comedic genius try looking at the Nashville produced HEE HAW TV Show. The regular comic characters on that show were pure Al Capp. Hee Haw used Capp like characters including the Maw and Pa characters, the not so stupid country bumpkin, and the scantily clad young females who just appeared for the purpose of providing sex appeal. Capp got away with it by creating gorgeous sensuous hillbilly females who were totally unaware of their sexuality. Hee Haw did the same to be acceptable the Bible Belt audience it reached. The downtrodden dumb ole country boy, out smarting the educated city slicker was a part of Capp's cartoons and Hee Haw.
BTW, the big downfall in American newspaper cartoons came sometime in the 1970s when newspapers stupidly reduced the cartoon panel sizes in order to make space for more cartoon stories. It was counter-productive because it was hard to get the correct artwork in such small panels. Also the number of cartoon panels was reduced which hurt the flow of the stories. People nowadays don't immediately turn to the comics pages of the newspapers like they used to.
I'll definitely date myself with this one, but there was t
he "nomoto" car which was Japanese made. Happened about the time the influx of Japanese cars really began to built in this country. The nomoto car had no motor and derived its propulsive energy from a harness that the driver wore around his chest. It worked well until, one day, a driver sees this "hot" chick on the street corner. The nomoto car driver's respiratory rate increased to the point where the car went out of control and crashed. That event ended the nomoto car's popularity in this country.
L'il Abner was one of my favorite comic strips and I looked forward to the politically incorrect aspect of it. No one at that time had ever heard of "political correctness" as far as I know.
FD
Have I just been declared legally dead?
When I was about 5 years old, my early Sunday morning duty was to bring in the Sunday paper and divide up the sections where I would end up with the cartoon section. Lil' Abner was one of my favorites.
There may be more of us "fossils", who read Al Capp's comic strips, lurking on this very forum.
I resemble those remarks!
CALLING THE HISTORY CHANNEL! CALLING THE HISTORY CHANNEL!
I've already done a lot of research on this topic and know where many of the important documents, especially as pertaining to the Capp-Fisher feud can be found. I wasn't researching this as some sort of assignment. It was sort of a hobby of mine. I became really fascinating in the relationship between Capp and Fisher and how it deteriorated to the point where it led to Fisher's suicide after he was discovered to have tried to frame Capp via forgery as the author of some "pornographic" cartoons.
Oh!! Really??I certainly do remember the Al Capp strip. And still often chuckle over memories of it.
And I am a pretty young Guy.
I resemble those remarks!
Stupefying Jones and Jubilation T. Corpone dittos and a big ole "if your knees are weak and your brain is loose, what you need is Kickapoo Joy Juice" to those sentiments.
BTW. I'll bet you probably remember "A tip of the Hatlo Hat."
Going through puberty and reading the funny papers. Better than National Geographic or the Sears catalog.
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