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Mae Questel revealed why she stepped in to play Popeye
Well, blow me down!
When Jack Mercer, the voice actor of Popeye, was drafted into World War II, Fleischer Studios needed a temporary substitute to step into the spinach-loving sailor's shoes. According to Mae Questel, the original plan was to hire another actor as a substitute until Mercer returned from the war. In a 1978 late-night interview, Questel revealed, "Now this man had been on the stage, and he had all the know-how. He had the voice; he got mic fright, which is a terrible thing. Here we are at RCA Studios trying, you know, to get through with the cartoon. So I stepped in, and of course, the engineer did a little engineering, but I sounded like, 'Wow, blow me down!'"
While it was unfortunate that the still unnamed actor had mic fright, Questel's improvisational background showed Max Fleischer that they could still make Popeye cartoons with the voice actors they already had. Questel said she voiced Popeye for about ten cartoons. For Questel's performances, she stuck to Popeye's usual phrases like "Blow me down!" and "Shiver me timbers!". At this point, she and Mercer had recorded over 40 Popeye cartoons together, and she knew his cadence and style well enough that with a little audio editing, she sounded good enough to keep the cartoons going. Later, they brought in reinforcements from the world of radio: Floyd Buckley, who had voiced Popeye on the radio show, and Harry Welch, who filled in for one cartoon. Welch then assisted with live performances and recording Popeye records. He also occasionally filled in after the war, whenever Mercer was unavailable.
Questel explained that the editing process was fairly simple, despite this being very early on in cartoon audio recording: "We just lowered the pitch a little bit, but you know, let's face it, it wasn't that good." Cartoon fans, judge that for yourself! Questel voiced Popeye in "Shape Ahoy."
