Before I knew Mae was Betty Boop, I was most familiar with her as Aunt Bethany from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and maybe you are too. The reason you continue to see so much of the animated Boop-Oop-A-Doop girl these days is that Fleischer Studios, no longer taking money in with work, has largely concentrated their efforts on marketing and merchandising.Ī couple of more fun Betty Boop facts: One of the many talented ladies to voice Betty included Mae Questel. Nothing doing – interest continued to plummet, and the last official Betty Boop cartoon aired in 1939.
When these didn’t do much to boost her popularity, Betty was teamed with a cavalcade of other cartoon superstars of the era. Betty’s human boyfriend was even replaced with an elderly inventor named Grampy with whom Betty had a strictly platonic relationship (as far as we know). Though Fleischer kept making cartoons featuring Betty, the cartoons got tamer and tamer. Sadly, the censorship was the beginning of the end for Betty cartoons. Bimbo had to be replaced with a human boyfriend because people were worried that a female human with a male dog suggested bestiality (hey, it worked for Jessica Rabbit). The garter, cleavage and short skirts were replaced with a more respectable knee-length black dress, complete with long sleeves and a ruffle on the neckline to avoid exposing too much skin.
#Happy birthday betty boop red hair code
Kane lost the lawsuit.īetty fell victim to the Hays Code in 1934 and had to clean up her act. Since so many entertainers of the day were adopting the flapper style, it was impossible to prove that Fleischer had stolen Kane’s look specifically. Furthermore, they said, many people also believed the design of Betty Boop was inspired by Hollywood It Girl Clara Bow. It was determined that Helen didn’t have exclusivity to the baby-styled singing voice or the “Boop-Oop-A-Doop” line – Fleischer’s lawyers were able to insinuate that Helen actually took both of these elements from a singer she saw at the Cotton Club who went by the name Baby Esther. Though the evidence was certainly stacked against Fleischer and his company, the court ruled in their favor. In the cartoon “The Bum Bandit,” the studio Betty Boop portrayed Dangerous Nan McGrew, a role Helen originated the previous year. Not only did they look similar, Helen was famous in the ‘20s as “The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Girl,” which you almost certainly recognize today as Betty’s tagline, not Helen Kane’s. And you can be sure that the actresses themselves noticed – Helen Kane sued Max Fleischer and Paramount for $250,000 for blatantly using her likeness without her permission. It didn’t take long for Betty to become more popular than her boyfriend (gee… wonder why?), and suddenly, Bimbo was out of the picture and Betty was front-and-center.Īs Betty became more popular, some people began to notice a striking resemblance between the cartoon and a couple of famous actresses, most notably Helen Kane (pictured) and Clara Bow.
If you have a spare six minutes, check it out. Her first recognizable appearance as Betty (Bimbo had a female companion in earlier cartoons but in no way did she resemble Betty Boop) was in 1930’s “Dizzy Dishes.” Though she looks pretty familiar, the long dog ears are a dead giveaway that she hadn’t reached her final form yet. Yep – back in 1930, Betty was less person and more poodle (and not nearly as cute). Boop was conceived of as a girlfriend for Bimbo, a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios, a big player in the era of silent cartoons. She’s gone through a lot of changes over the years – as in, she’s completely changed species. Don’t let her fool you: she may look pretty good (OK, amazing) for her age, but Betty Boop is actually 81 years old today.
0 kommentar(er)
