Boofheads Unite
Popeye has left the cliff top. Popeye, in fact, was never on the cliff – so just ignore the glitch the Cassowary index that tells you Popeye and Olive Oyl are standing above the Jamison Valley in Leura (NSW), in Sydney’s Blue Mountains.
Olive Oyl IS there, with a wind-gauge in her hair to avoid the kookaburra poo. Yet the tall man beside her isn’t Popeye, but Boofhead, a comic strip lummox from the 1950s. That’s right – Oyl one big two-toymer.
Both kitsch characters were installed by landowner Clive Evatt in 1992, most likely as a snub to local council for blocking plans to stage opera and drama at the open-air amphitheatre on the same spot. [Opposite Leuralla Toy Museum, corner of Olympian Pde and Balmoral Rd.]
Spotted any other booboos in the book? Know of other bizarre installations around the country? Don’ be coy. Let us know.
October 12th, 2005 at 8:01 am
Boofhead? Was he later transformed into Popeye’s archrival Bluto?
On other Popeye-related issues, there’s a town in Malta where the film with Robin williams was shot. Although the film was a bit of a flop, they keep the sets up and charge tourist to get snaps of it. So convincing are the sets, that they’ve reputedly made appearances in guidebooks with captions about ‘tradiitional dwellings’ and other such guff.
October 12th, 2005 at 8:34 am
Isn’t Bluto the Yank version of Brutus?
(Boofhead was a homegrown bumbler. A Cro-Magnon sort of larrikin with an aversion to hard work. I’m sure there’s a BAS – or Boofhead Appreciation Society – still lurking down-under.)
And if Popeye’s such a hit in Malta, I look forward to eating the spanakopita in Valletta.