I saw Flippo The Clown live

Flippo was a tv clown in the 1950's in Columbus,Ohio.  He had a show that came on at 3 PM every weekday showing Popeye cartoons which later change and only showed Popeye cartoons just on Friday. Rest of the week he showed movies.Even tough Flippo was a local celebrity he did have his picture on the National TV guide along with a written article.

On one Saturday Flippo the clown was live at the Hudson's movie theater before the movie started Flippo entertain us by letting us sing certain songs and following a balancing ball on the screen and telling jokes. after which everyone got his autographed picture even as a kid I could tell the autograph was a pre-print.The movie they were showing that day was "Smiley"

I do not have Flippo's autograph picture any more  because when I grew up and became a teenager that picture went into the trash.

Below is a Popeye cartoon that uses rotoscoping (tracing the outlines of real people movements one frame at a time). Not only that they had panes of glass on a round table in which the cartoon cels  and backgrounds were place  on vertically and the cartoon camera was at the side not on top like most cartoon cameras.  This gives the cartoon a foreground, middle ground and background effect.The dance routine in this cartoon will amaze you.

click here for Popeye With Heart cartoon

In the 1960's the tv station odered more Popeye cartoons but were cancelled after two weeks even Flippo the clown said that they are not like the others. Flippo was  right. They still use cel work but today the following Popeye cartoon below could have been done on a computer without cels,paint,  etc.A cel is a sheet of transparent plastic with a character drawing to be place on a background.

click here for Bore Me Popeye Cartoon

In the 1950's  at the month of November the Hudson theater advertise that they are going to show 30 cartoons on Thankgiving day. Guess how many people showed up ?  Two just me and my friend Barry. After the 30 cartoons and comedy shorts were shown we tried to stay to watch it again, but we were asked to go home.The theater made 50 cents that day and lost lot of money cartoon reels are expensive to rent.