Shmoo
The shmoo is a fictional cartoon creature created by Al Capp, which first appeared in the comic strip Li'l Abner on August 31, 1948. The character created a fad that lasted into the 1950s, including merchandise, songs, fan clubs, and appearances on magazine covers. The parable of the shmoo has been interpreted in many different ways, both at the time and in later analysis.
Origins
Al Capp offered his version of the origin of the Shmoo in a wryly satirical article, "I Don't Like Shmoos", in Cosmopolitan :Capp introduced many other allegorical creatures in Li'l Abner over the years—including Bald Iggles, Kigmies, Nogoodniks, Mimikniks, the Money Ha-Ha, Shminks, Abominable Snow-Hams, Gobbleglops, Shtunks and Bashful Bulganiks, among others. Each one highlighted another disquieting facet of human nature—but none have ever had quite the same cultural impact as the Shmoo. According to publisher Denis Kitchen: "For the rest of his career Capp got countless letters people begging him to bring the Shmoo back. Periodically he would do it but each time it ended the same way—with the Shmoo being too good for humanity, and he had to essentially exterminate them again. But there was always one or two who would survive for future plot twists..."
Etymology
The origin of Capp's word "shmoo" has been the subject of linguistic consideration by scholars for decades. Academics Arthur Asa Berger and Allan H. Orrick of Johns Hopkins University speculated by that shmoo was a thinly veiled phallic symbol, and that the name derives from Yiddish schmuck meaning ‘male genitalia’ or a ‘fool, contemptuous person’. Even prior to Berger and Orrick's explanation, Thomas Pyles at University of Florida had favored the shmuck etymology over the derivation from the Yiddish schmu, suggested by Leo Spitzer.Spitzer noted the shmoo's providential characteristics in arguing his hypothesis, further explaining that in Yiddish schmu specifically connoted "illicit profit", and that the word also giving rise to term schmus ‘tale, gossip’, whose verb form schmusen or ‘shmoosing’ has become familiar even to non-Jews. Lilian Mermin Feinsilver assessed this association with shmu ‘illicit profit’ as "pertinent", together with the observation that shmue was a taboo Yiddish term for the uterus.
It is one of many Yiddish slang variations that would find their way into Li'l Abner. Revealing an important key to the story, Al Capp wrote that the Shmoo metaphorically represented the limitless bounty of the Earth in all its richness—in essence, Mother Nature herself. In Li'l Abner's words, "Shmoos hain't make believe. The hull earth is one!!"
Analysis
"Capp is at his allegorical best in the epics of the Shmoos, and later, the Kigmies", wrote comic strip historian Jerry Robinson "Shmoos are the world's most amiable creatures, supplying all man's needs. Like a fertility myth gone berserk, they reproduced so prodigiously they threatened to wreck the economy"—if not western civilization as we know it, and ultimately society itself.Superficially, the Shmoo story concerns a cuddly creature that desires nothing more than to be a boon to humans. Although initially Capp denied or avoided discussion of any satirical intentions, he was widely seen to be using clever subtext. The story has social, ethical, and philosophical implications that continue to invite analysis into the 21st Century. During the remainder of his life, Capp was seldom interviewed without reference to the nature of the Shmoo story.
The mythic tale ends on a deliberately ironic note. Shmoos are officially declared a menace, and systematically hunted down and slaughtered—because they were deemed "bad for business". The much-copied story line was a parable that was interpreted in many different ways at the outset of the Cold War. Al Capp was even invited to go on a radio show to debate socialist Norman Thomas on the effect of the Shmoo on modern capitalism.
"After it came out both the left and the right attacked the Shmoo", according to publisher Denis Kitchen. "Communists thought he was making fun of socialism and Marxism. The right wing thought he was making fun of capitalism and the American way. Capp caught flak from both sides. For him it was an apolitical morality tale about human nature... I think was one of those bursts of genius. He was a genius, there's no question about that."
Reception
The Shmoo inspired hundreds of "Shmoo clubs" all over North America. College students—who had made Capp's invented idea of the Sadie Hawkins dance a universally adopted tradition—flocked to the Shmoo as well. One school, the University of Bridgeport, even launched the "American Society for the Advancement of the Shmoo" in early 1949.Licensing history
An unexpected—and virtually unprecedented—postwar merchandising phenomenon followed Capp's introduction of the Shmoo in Li'l Abner. As in the strip, shmoos suddenly appeared to be everywhere in 1949 and 1950—including a Time cover story. They also garnered nearly a full page of coverage in the Time International section. Major articles also ran in Newsweek, Life, The New Republic, and countless other publications and newspapers. Virtually overnight, as a Life headline put it, "The U.S. Becomes Shmoo-Struck!"Toys and consumer products
Shmoo dolls, clocks, watches, jewelry, earmuffs, wallpaper, fishing lures, air fresheners, soap, ice cream, balloons, ashtrays, toys, games, Halloween masks, salt and pepper shakers, decals, pinbacks, tumblers, coin banks, greeting cards, planters, neckties, suspenders, belts, curtains, fountain pens, and other shmoo paraphernalia were produced. A garment factory in Baltimore turned out a whole line of shmoo apparel, including "Shmooveralls". In 1948, people danced to the Shmoo Rhumba and the Shmoo Polka. The Shmoo briefly entered everyday language through such phrases as "What's Shmoo?" and "Happy Shmoo Year!"Close to a hundred licensed shmoo products from 75 different manufacturers were produced in less than a year, some of which sold five million units each. In a single year, shmoo merchandise generated more than $25 million in sales in 1948 dollars.
The Shmoo was so popular it even replaced Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse as the face of the Children's Savings Bond, issued by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1949. The valid document was colorfully illustrated with Capp's character, and promoted by the Federal Government of the United States with a $16 million advertising campaign budget. According to one article at the time, the Shmoo showed "Thrift, loyalty, trust, duty, truth, and common cents add up to aid to his nation". Al Capp accompanied President Harry S. Truman at the bond's unveiling ceremony.
Comic books and reprints
The Life and Times of the Shmoo, a paperback collection of the original sequence, was a bestseller for Simon & Schuster and became the first cartoon book to achieve serious literary attention. Distributed to small town magazine racks, it sold 700,000 copies in its first year of publication alone. It was reviewed coast to coast alongside Dwight Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe.The original book and its sequel, The Return of the Shmoo, have been collected in print many times since—most recently in 2002—always to high sales figures.
There was also a separate line of comic books, Al Capp's Shmoo Comics, published by the Capp family-owned Toby Press. Comics historian and Li'l Abner expert Denis Kitchen recently edited a complete collection of all five original Shmoo Comics, from 1949 and 1950. The book was published by Dark Horse Comics in 2008. Kitchen edited a second Shmoo-related volume for Dark Horse in 2011, on the history of the character in newspaper strips, collectibles, and memorabilia.
Recordings and sheet music
Recordings and published sheet music related to the Shmoos include:Image:Shmoo78rpm.jpeg|thumb|right|150px|Shmoo 78rpm disc
- The Shmoo Sings with Earl Rogers 78 rpm / Allegro
- The Shmoo Club b/w The Shmoo Is Clean, the Shmoo Is Neat with Gerald Marks and Justin Stone 78 rpm / Music You Enjoy, Inc.
- The Snuggable, Huggable Shmoo b/w The Shmoo Doesn't Cost a Cent with Gerald Marks and Justin Stone 78 rpm / Music You Enjoy, Inc.
- Shmoo Lesson b/w A Shmoo Can Do Most Anything with Gerald Marks and Justin Stone 78 rpm / Music You Enjoy, Inc.
- The Shmoo Song Composed by Jule Styne & John Jacob Loeb / Harvey Music Corp.
- Shmoo Songs Composed by Gerald Marks / Bristol Music Corp.
- The Kigmy Song Composed by Joe Rosenield & Fay Tishman / Town and Country Music Co.
Animation and puppetry
After Capp's death in 1979, the Shmoo gained its own animated series as part of Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo, which consisted of reruns of The New Fred and Barney Show mixed with the Shmoo's own cartoons; despite the title the two sets of characters didn't directly "meet" within the show. The characters did meet, however, in the early 1980s Flintstones spin-off The Flintstone Comedy Show. The Shmoo appeared, incongruously, in the segment Bedrock Cops as a police officer alongside part-time officers Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Needless to add, this Shmoo had little relationship to the L'il Abner character, other than a superficial appearance. A later Hanna-Barbera venture, The New Shmoo, featured the character as an shape-shifting mascot of Mighty Mysteries Comics, a group of teens who solve Scooby-Doo-like mysteries. In this series the Shmoo could metamorphose magically into any shape at will — like Tom Terrific. None of these revisionist revivals of the venerable character was particularly successful.