We Aim To Please

Who doesn’t like the cityscapes in the old Popeye cartoons? Even the ones that don’t feature buildings, light posts and so on that are bent and warped are interesting, especially when you compare them to what downtown areas look like today.

Here’s the opening background of “We Aim to Please” (1934). Note the handle on top and the snaps over the front windows.



There isn’t much pedestrian traffic where the diner is, so Popeye punches it down the block. No spinach required (that’s for quelling bad guys only).



I loved the first Fleischer Popeyes as a kid. Many of the gags stuck in my mind for years after the cartoons vanished from local TV some time in the mid-‘60s. The two songs I remembered best were “King of the Mardi Gras” and the title song from this cartoon. Music by Sammy Timberg, lyrics by Jack Scholl (copyright April 3, 1935):

We aim to please.
It’s our business to be at your service.
We aim to please.
Strawmberry, pineapple pie.

You don’t have to go on a diet.
We always make sure that you’re fed.
Our hamburger steaks are a riot.
You’d better try liver instead.

'Cause..

We aim to please.
It’s our business to be at your service.
We aim to please.
Onions are beautiful things.