On this date back in 1919, Elzie Segar's "Thimble Theatre" made it's debut in the Hearst papers. At first the strip was a parody of silent movie melodramas of the time but soon Segar dropped this concept and gave Olive Oyl and her original boyfriend Harold Ham Gravy individual personalities.
The following January, Segar introduces Olive's brother Castor into the strip and starts to tell ongoing stories along with his "gag-a-day" regular strips.
Of course "Thimble Theatre" would become famous in 1929 when Segar would introduce Popeye the Sailor into the strip during the "Dice Island" storyline. Popeye would go on to conquer newspaper strips, radio, cartoons, TV, etc. and take Olive, Wimpy, Swee'pea, Alice, Eugene, Bluto, the Sea Hag and the rest of the cast of the strip with him.
But Olive Oyl has been there from the start. So Happy Birthday Olive!!!
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