PART TWO / PART ONE HERE

by Kevin S. Butler

Capt. Allen became so popular that he did personal appearances at supermarkets and department stores. He was joined at some of those personal appearances by actor Harry Foster Welch (who performed Popeye's voice for the Paramount/Famous versions of the Popeye films when Jack Mercer was overseas during the war) at Macy's and Bamberger's.

Swift has stated in his memoir, ‘Chutzpah: Hi Diddle Dee Dee, An Actor's Life For Me’ that he didn't the time to perform for his young fans at NYC's Macy, simply shaking their hands, talk briefly with the kids and answer a question or two.

According to puppeteer and entertainer Craig Marin, he recalled attending one of those PA's as a young man at Macy’s with his dad. Capt. Allen performed an entire show where he did magic tricks, drew cartoons, told stories, answered questions for his fans while signing autographs.

He also merchandized his character, creating and selling a Capt. Allen dress up kit, a Capt. Allen Swift fan club kit, and he recored three kids’ TV soundtrack discs; two for Cabot Records (on one of them, Swift performed with Mae Questel the voices of Olive Oyl and Sweet Pea ) and one for RCA Camden Kids records which was nominated for a Grammy in 1960. The disc lost to The Alvin Show.

The Popeye Show was also nominated for an NYC Emmy Award but the program lost to WCBS TV's On The Carousel (then hosted by Paul & Ruth Tripp) and WRCA TV's Children's Theater (Hosted by Ray Forrest). The show was doing very well but Capt. Allen soon began having trouble with the station's management who objected to his doing disclaimers to prevent the kids watching at home from believing in the negative depiction of ethnic groups seen in the films and they also objected to his warning the kids to not try and emulate Popeye's strong man stunts.

Capt. Allen felt that he was justified in presenting this advice to his young viewers. On one show, he screened the Popeye cartoon ‘Hold The Wire’ where the sailor found out that his arch foe Bluto was calling up Olive and making snide remarks to her in a Popeye like voice. The heroic sailor man climbed up a neighboring telephone pole ripped the wires apart and sent a surge of electric energy that gave the fat villain a shock in his tushie.

Unfortunately, a four year old boy watched the show that night, after the show was over instead of going to bed the child snuck out of the house, climbed up to the top of a telephone pole, touched the wires and he was electracuted.

Swift read about the tragedy in the newspaper, on the way to the studio the next morning, outraged, he told the viewers that these were cartoon characters doing these stunts not real people. And to make his point Capt. Allen invited Mr. Kim Deitch, the son of his friend cartoon animator Mr. Gene Deitch to show his own home made animated films and to explained to the kids watch at home the difference between what happens in a cartoon and what happens in real life.

The Station execs were not impressed and they kept on interfering with the format of the show until the fall of 1960 when Ch.11 began taping their shows, all the show were being pre-recorded except for Swift's Popeye Show - by this time he was appearing in theatrical plays in summer stock and he wanted the station to pre-tape his hosting segments. They refused. Angered, Capt. Allen told them to either they tape his shows or he would walk off the program.

On the morning of Friday September 23, 1960, Capt. Allen Swift was fired by the management of WPIX TV. The following Monday, September 26, 1960 radio/tv broadcaster, radio actor and one of the co-founders of Ch.11 Jack McCarthy replaced Swift as the third and last mc of The Popeye Show

During the 1960’s, Swift did voice overs for commercials and for cartoons - he was the voice of Ducky Drake for Drake's snack cakes, and he did voices for King Leonardo & His Short Subjects , The Underdog Show and The Beagles with Sandy Becker, Jackson Beck, Kenny Delmar, Wally Cox and Norma McMillan for Leonardo/Total Television,Inc. He also performed the voices of Capt. Cupcake, Twinkie the Kid, and Chief Big Wheel for Hostess Snack cakes.

He also performed the voices for the fish puppets and he did a vo’s for Frank Freda's Underwater hero for Diver Dan TV puppet films. He even performed in several Broadway shows and Swift even wrote, produced and performed in his own play Checking Out which was based upon the stories of a former Yiddish actor that he met while working in the Catskills.

Swift briefly appeared on the TV crime dramas Law & Order and The Equalizer and played a not too understanding father on an episode of the CBS sitcom Kate & Allie. Swift did a voice overs for Danny Kaye's kids TV puppet special: The Enchanted World Of Danny Kaye: The Emperor’s New Clothes for ABC TV in 1973 and he also did vo's for the Rankin/Bass puppet feature film Mad Monster Party in 1966.

Allan Swift was interviewed for NYC based cable TV host/producer Ira Galen's series Biograph Days/ Biograph Nights. His last projects were being interviewed for two books about the history of Underdog and The Leonardo/Total TV cartoons.

When the film Mad Monster Party was rereleased on DVD, Swift was interviewed for a documentary about the making of the movie. He continued to perform in the theater and did voice overs for commercials until failing health forced him to retire.

Allen Swift died on April 19, 2010 but his contributions to cartoons, commercials, radio, the theater and to kids’ TV will never be forgotten.

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