I Eats My Spinach Backgrounds

Here are pieces of a background drawing that opened the Fleischer cartoon “I Eats My Spinach” (1933). Note the cat under the sandwich board advertising beer in the first frame grab. The buildings are in the order they appear in the right-to-left pan as Popeye walks down the street. The Brooklyn-ese on the sign post (on an overlay) is a nice touch.









The name “Mills Hotel” isn’t random. It was the moniker put on three New York City hostels put up by a D.O. Mills for the poor. They were controversial because there were claims Mills built them for a profit. A New York Times reporter went in cognito to do a story about one of them in 1908. You can read it HERE.

Here’s Popeye with a saloon and barber shop behind him.



As usual, the background artist at Fleischer who came up with these was not identified on screen. Seymour Kneitel and Doc Crandall get the animation credits.