Today marks the 95th birthday of one of the most famous,
iconic female cartoon characters of all time.
The beautiful and bodacious Betty Boop!
Boop-Oop-A-Doop!
The animated "It Girl" of the 1930's, Betty's sweet and sassy character
captured the hearts of Americans during the early days of the Great Depression.
An original creation of cartoonist Grim Natwick for animator and studio
owner Max Fleischer, Betty was first depicted as a dog character in
her debut cartoon, "Dirty Dishes" which premiered on August 9, 1930.
She later evolved into the sexy caricature of a Jazz Age flapper girl.
A 1934 court case described Betty as having, "a large round baby face
with big eyes and a nose like a button, framed in a somewhat careful
coiffure, with a very small body of which perhaps the leading
characteristic is the most self-confident little bust imaginable."
Her vampish appearance, however, was toned down by the mid-1930's
in compliance with the Hays Code. The new Betty was still a spicy
and spirited gal, but a lot more modest in regards to dress.
"Wanna be a member? Wanna be a member? No!"
In 1931's animated comedy, "Bimbo's Initiation" Betty comes to
the rescue of her pal, Bimbo, after he falls into a subterranean
world run by a mysterious group, whose members keep
pressuring him to join their underground society.
"All that glitters is not gold."
Deemed, "the darkest of all the Fleischer cartoons" by film critic Leonard Malton,
I have often wondered what the motivation was behind this weird and whimsical
production. Was "Bimbo's Initiation" merely a freaky fantasy, or could this have
been Max Fleischer's way of conveying to the general public his knowledge of
a sinister subculture hidden within the entertainment industry
in Hollywood? Given what has been revealed in more
recent years, this would not surprise me!
(1931)
Fleischer Studios
Uploaded by langlois
(May 19, 2015)
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