January 17, 1929 marked the debut of E. C. Segar's Popeye the Sailor, a supporting character in his Thimble Theater comic strip. The irresistible Olive Oyl unceremoniously dropped her boyfriend Ham Gravy for the crusty, muscle-bound seaman.
During this time, Hollywood was pioneering with the first sound musicals. Max Fleischer, the prominent animator, joined Paramount Pictures and used the company's large song catalog and affiliated recording artists in his black-and-white cartoons. Some of the notable singers heard in Fleischer's works were Cab Calloway, Rudy Vallee and the Mills Brothers. Fleischer was anxious to adapt the Popeye figure to his animated movie medium. On July 14, 1933, the femme fatale Betty Boop introduced Popeye the Sailor to a wide audience. New York composer Sammy Timberg created Popeye's inimitable musical theme. With that auspicious beginning, Popeye went on to have his own successful cartoon series.
Throughout the years, cartoon music has drawn from various genres including classical, electronic, jazz and popular. For those interested in the development of this music, Daniel Goldmark's The Cartoon Music Book and Gary Marmorstein's Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and its Makers 1900 to 1975 may be consulted. Bud Sagendorf's Popeye, the First Fifty Years provides a detailed description of the Thimble Theater comics.