Tintin in America: Rastapopoulos in the dinner scene?

GSC
Not necessarily given that it was his first appearance.

As is pointed out at the beginning of this thread, he is seated next to a woman who is referred to in the 1930s B&W edition of "America" as "Mary Pikefort", an allusion to the real-life actress Mary Pickford.

I think that towards the conclusion of "America" Herge was already planning to involve a film producer in the next adventures ("Cigars of the Pharaoh") and that giving the producer a cameo in "America" gave it a kind of continuity.

He may even have thought that such a cameo would provoke discussions among his readers. Looks like he succeeded!

But In Cigars of The Pharaoh, he could have made Tintin remark that he had met him in America in the dinner scene. Hergé certainly could have done that to make it truly appear that Rastapopoulos was in the dinner scene.

Moderator Note: This becoming a bit of a regular refrain, GSC, but once again: please don't quote anything more than the bare minimum from another post - it's not neccessary to copy paragraph upon paragraph - just a relevant sentence or two is more than enough.

The Tidy Tintinolgist Team

That's true, and the fact that Hergé didn't add this remark probably proves that it wasn't Rastapopoulos.

I was refuring to the whole segment. Hence me quoting the whole message. But I can keep tabs down on that if you want. :)

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The Tintinologist Team

Having just received my nice copy of Lotus Bleu in the archives series, I notice it states that Rastapopoulos was in fact Greek (not Greek American). This information comes from an interesting piece which appeared in the Petit Vingtieme of 1935 as a prelude to the publishing of the strips themselves. In this article the main protagonists of the Blue Lotus are given individual descriptions in the style of an English detective novel. Rastapopoulos is introduced as a Greek millionaire and director of Cosmos Pictures.

Maybe more information on this topic can be found in the Tintin in America and Cigars of the Pharaoh books in this series (which I don't have - yet!).

mat

robbo
Interesting that Rastapopoulos is conclusively introduced as a Greek. The suffix -opoulos is definitely Greek, and from the Peloponnese to boot. It means 'the son of'. Trouble is, there is no greek name even vaguely resembling Rasta, for Rastapopoulos to be his son. Thus, in the initial greek translations Rastapopoulos was called Astrapopoulos, which is more greek sounding (it would mean 'son of Star').

As for Robert, or Rovertos, it is a very rare name in Greek, and it doesn't even have a corresponding Orthodox saint (most Greek names correspond to those of a saint). Nor were Greeks ever particularly promininent in Hollywood, for Rastapopoulos to be even remotely typical of a Hollywood mogul.

I would have thought that Alan the mate is a more stereotypical depiction of a Greek, with his long straight nose, but then there is not a single Greek called Alan. Then again, Greeks are traditionally heavily represented in shipping, especially of the dodgy sort that Alan is involved in.

(should i do this is in another thread, about Greeks in Tintin?)

I suppose Rastapopoulos could be an "Ellis Island Special" where a customs officer wrote down whatever they thought they had heard from a new arrival.

Roberto could indicate a Spanish / Italian origin, possibly on the mother's side?