Deryk Barker wrote:

>(When I first encountered [Ives'] quoting of "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean"
>to my English ears, which had been exposed to a good deal of US culture in
>the shape of imported tv and radio programmes, it was the tune which always
>accompanied Popeye just after he'd eaten the spinach and was proceeding to
>knock the stuffing out of whatever/whoever had previously been knocking the
>stuffing out of him...)

Deryk might have listened a little more closely.  The tune that follows
Popeye's downing of a can of spinach is not "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean"
but "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man," written in 1934 expressly for the animated
cartoons by composer Sammy Lerner.  (Lerner is perhaps better known as
a lyricist:he wrote the English words for Fredrick Hollaender's "Falling
in Love Again," sung by Marlene Dietrich in "The Blue Angel," and shared
honors in 1936 with Irving Caesar for the #1 hit "Is It True What They Say
about Dixie?")

John Dalmas
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