The Shmoo (How Al Capp's Cartoon Critter Captured The Nation's Attention)

Self | December 10, 2002 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

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.

[PJ-Comix]

My favorite American strip cartoonist is Milton Caniff.

This discussion is GREAT because everything you folks talk about has something to do with Al Capp! As for Milton Caniff, Capp disliked him immensely because he claimed Caniff stole material from him. And Capp always referred to Milt Caniff as Milt "Goniff." I hope you "got" that.

[gcruse]

I would have been seven or eight years old, so I probably read it, just don't remember. I do remember S.W.I.N.E. though. Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything.

And Feel-o-vision. Do you remember Feel-o-Vision?

[PJ-Comix]

With the '70s came a decline in the quality of newspaper humor strips.....

Mainly due to the idiotic decision by the newspapers to reduce the panel size of the comics. That pretty much signaled the END of quality newspaper comics strips.

[PJ-Comix]

I am glad you didn't include Gary Larson's The Far Side in your analysis of the decline of the state of comic strips, other that that I wholeheartedly agree.

Except that "The Far Side" isn't a comics strip. It is a SINGLE cartoon PANEL.

[PJ-Comix]

The comic strip, along with jazz and motion pictures, is our only native American artform.

Yet MORE reason for the History Channel to do a show about American newspaper comics. BTW, back then Al Capp was the toast of high society and was considered part of the avant guard.

[Willie Green]

I remember seeing shmoos in the Lil Abner comic strip.

I'm gonna guess it was in the early to mid '60s.

[breakem]

Sometime in the late 40s or early 50's I remember the mayor of NY, don't know which, reading the "funnies" on the radio because the papers were on strike.

[thrcanbonly1]

I stand corrected, but it's still pretty damn funny.

[pankot]

Actually, every time I see Jimmie Carter on TV I am reminded of the Schmoo.

[PJ-Comix]

I found this TIDBIT below about the relationship of Al Capp and Ham Fisher. However, this brief description doesn't even begin to describe the level of hatred in their feud. Fisher's "Joe Palooka" went into steep popularity decline in comparison with Capp's "Li'l Abner" and he hated Capp with an intensity hard to imagine. Capp returned the hate and fueled it even more with a devastating "Atlantic Magazine" article about Fisher, "I Remember Monster" and a vicious parody of Fisher in the Sunday comics strip.

In 1919, Ham Fisher (Hammond Edward Fisher) got his first job as an editorial and sports cartoonist. In 1920, he drew his first 'Joe Palooka' episodes and tried selling them, without success. In 1927, Fisher moved to New York, where he began looking again for a syndicate willing to buy his comic. In 1928, 'Joe Palooka' finally began its run. Fisher immediately started looking for young talent to work on the strip for him, and found Al Capp, among others, who later complained about Fisher's meager wages. Out of spite, Fisher took Capp to court on the accusation of obscenity in Capp's Strip, 'Li'l Abner'. To prove his point, he used faked examples of the strip, which he made himself. When this fact came out, Capp won the case, and Fisher was expelled from the National Cartoonists Society. In 1955, he ended his life.

[The Coopster]

HELLO. All these posts, and nobody has mentioned the appearance of said Shmoo and sidekick on Sat. morning cartoons in the late 70's? This was about the time that cartoon producers were really reaching for ideas (remember Laff-a-Lympics, where Hanna-Barbera simply combined all past characters into one handy show? Or what about Jetsons meet Flinstones?) As much as I like to think of myself as a student of pop culture, it is with no small amount of shame that I admit that I had no idea that there was any Shmoo outside of Hanna-Barbera Shmoo.

But then again, I'm only 34....... ;-)

[PJ-Comix]

Sometime in the late 40s or early 50's I remember the mayor of NY, don't know which, reading the "funnies" on the radio because the papers were on strike.

The "Little Flower"---Fiorello La Guardia.

[breakem]

My guess, but couldn't remember. Good idea for History channel!

[breakem]

One more. I think Capp had Sadie Hawkins day where the single women chased the single men. Our high school had Sadie Hawkins dance where the gals invited the guys.

[PJ-Comix]

I sent this thread to the History Channel and I sure hope they are paying attention to it since it obvious there is a lot of interest in this topic. I think a History Channel documentary on American newspaper cartooning would be very popular.

[RightWhale]

nobody alive today remembers Al Capp, or Li'l Abner, for that mattter.

In 1948 I had an inflatable schmoo, weighted on the bottom so when you knocked it over it rolled right back up. It was almost as tall as I was.

[PJ-Comix]

[B-Chan]

Col. Steven B. Canyon (USAFR) with his cousin and ward Poteet Canyon

[B-Chan]

That should read "Lieutenant Colonel", not "Colonel". Sorry!

[PJ-Comix]

BINGO!!!

I found this on the web about the scathing Atlantic Magazine article that Al Capp wrote about Ham Fisher. And he was merciless in his depiction of Fisher. I read that article in the library magazine archives.

Li'l Abner Vol. 17 (1951) by Al Capp. The introduction is a reprinting Capp's 1950 article "I Remember Monster," a vituperative and thinly-disguised attack on Capp's real-life arch enemy, cartoonist Ham Fisher (creator of Joe Palooka.) [See the introduction ...