Exactly who was Magoo?
QUESTION Was the cartoon character Mr Magoo based on the comic magazine character Colonel Blimp?
Mr Magoo was a character created at the UPa animation studio in 1949. Voiced by the actor Jim Backus, Mr Magoo gets into a series of comical situations as a result of his extreme near-sightedness and his stubborn belief that the world is how he sees it, not how it actually is.
Through uncanny streaks of luck, it always seems to work out in his favour.
The cartoons were nominated for the Best animated Short Film oscar four times and won the award twice for When Magoo Flew in 1954 and Magoo’s Puddle Jumper in 1956.
Mr Magoo bore little resemblance to the pompous and jingoistic walrusmoustachioed Colonel Blimp by cartoonist David Low, who named his character after the nickname for World War I barrage balloons.
He said he developed the character after overhearing two military men in a Turkish bath declare that cavalry officers should be entitled to wear their spurs inside tanks.
Mr Magoo was created by cartoonists Millard Kaufman and John Hubley and was an amalgamation of two of their uncles. Kaufman suggested the character of an irascible millionaire based on his uncle Leonard Liepman, a lawyer who loved the races and had made a fortune by inventing an aluminium horseshoe.
Hubley’s uncle was Harry Woodruff, who worked for an insurance company, and was irascible and intolerant.
as to the name, the cartoonists were fascinated by strange Californian placenames. They were struck by Point Magu near Malibu and so adopted the name Mr Magoo.
It has also been claimed that the comedian W. C. Fields was the inspiration for the character, but this is not the case. While certain traits were borrowed, such as Mr Magoo’s habit of swishing his cane to ward off dogs and other undesirables, the character differed in size and voice.
Fields was large and garrulous, Mr Magoo small and croaky. Fields played conmen and connivers while Mr Magoo was civic-minded and polite — if he bumped into a lamp post, he’d always raise his hat as he thought he had collided with a woman!
Dennis Foster, Wolverhampton, W. Mids.
Mr Magoo was created in 1949 while Colonel Blink (not Blimp) ‘the shortsighted gink’, drawn by Tom Bannister, first appeared in the Beezer comic in 1958.
Blink, a short-sighted retired officer, was a combination of Colonel Blimp and Mr Magoo. Blink had similar physical characteristics to Blimp — he was large, round and bluff — but, like Mr Magoo, he had complete confidence in his perception. His adventures were an escalating sequence of disasters based on innocent and often well-meaning intent.
When the Beezer ceased publication, Colonel Blink moved to the Beano, but as a young lad called Blinky.
Steve Mitchell, London SE8.
QUESTION I read a novel 40 years ago in which there was a present-day British civil war between the North and Scotland against the South. Who wrote it?
THIS book was 1968’s The Day The Queen Flew To Scotland For The grouse Shooting by arthur Wise.
Wise was a drama consultant and author from York who wrote sci-fi stories and thrillers, sometimes under the pen names John Mcarthur and Bryan Swift.
The Day The Queen Flew To Scotland For The grouse Shooting is his bestknown work.
The war begins when a Cup Final riot between Newcastle United and Chelsea escalates into civil war. While the Queen is shooting grouse on her Balmoral estate, she is abducted by the northern faction.
The North takes the role of the oppressed while the South is the establishment. In a shockingly memorable scene, when the city of Nottingham declares for the North, the government faction has the city carpet-bombed by 6,000 tons of explosives, obliterating it.
a southern Brigadier announces: ‘We’ll have every stick and stone in the North knocked down. We’ll sack your cities and burn your fields. We’ll smash your factories and burn down your cathedrals.’
Jo Norman, Leeds.
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