The painted rocks just keep coming here at Sun City Peachtree!  This artist just keeps rollin’ them out!

Today, Mr. Magoo landed on the bench, probably because he couldn’t see where he was going and tripped over it!  The poor old guy is so nearsighted, he could really use a good pair of glasses.  I don’t know why he doesn’t have his eyes examined.  It’s not like he can’t afford it, because the little chap is wealthy, just like his uncle, Tycoon Magoo. 

Poor eyesight runs in the household.  Magoo’s second dog, McBarker can’t see much either.  The talking bulldog also happens to look like his master, so they have a couple of things in common.  (Magoo’s first “dog,” Bowser, was actually a Siamese cat!)

Created in 1949 by UPA animation studio, Jim Backus is the voice of Mr. Quincy Magoo.  Although Magoo episodes were nominated for Best Animated Short Film by the Academy Awards committee three times, and received the award twice, TV Guide ranked Mr. Magoo way down at number 29 on its “50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time” list.  Actually, I would have to agree.  The stubborn old guy doesn’t make my Top Ten either.

After several years on the silver screen, Mister Magoo joined families in their living rooms, on television, in the 1960’s.  UPA had shut down its animation studios in 1959, so the company hired Jack Kinney Productions and Larry Harmon Pictures to take over the animation.  This was all done in a rush, though, so Magoo cartoons looked a bit choppy in the beginning. 

Are you a Rutgers University fan by any chance?  If so, you and Mr. Magoo would get along great! He was a frat boy there and graduated in 1928. Why Rutgers?  His creators wanted him to be “a college alumnus who was still fired up with the old school spirit [and they felt] Rutgers was the embodiment of the ‘old school tie’ in America.”

As ol’ Mr. Magoo was known to shout, “Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Rho—Rutgers, Rutgers, Go – Go – Go!”