In her first and only official color cartoon, Poor Cinderella, she was actually portrayed as a redhead. If you always thought Betty had black hair, you're wrong. When her purported saviors rescue her, though, they find Betty willingly embracing the boss instead. In Betty Boop's Big Boss, Betty is harassed by her boss and fights of his advances when outraged police and the armed forces all attack the building in order to protect her. Betty begs him to stop and is saved just in time by Koko the Clown.īut it seems unlikely that the creators actually intended to create her as an icon for women's advancement. In Boop-Oop-A-Doop, for example, Betty is a tightrope performer whose boss has followed her back into her tent and then threatens her job if she doesn't submit to his advances. In fact, there are a few episodes that portray her fighting off intimidating men, even some where she is facing sexual harassment, a highly taboo subject at the time. One of the reasons that Betty is so adored even to this day is the fact that many people see her as a feminist icon, oozing with sexuality, but preserving her virtue against dominating men. While on screen, she maintained her virtue, but behind the scenes, the company allowed her to be a little more naughty, sending a Christmas card out in 1931 that portrayed her in bed with Santa Claus, winking at the viewer. This also suited her character's age-according to a 1932 interview with Max Fleischer, Betty was only supposed to be only 16 years old. This childish sexuality was a perfect balance for the flapper image Betty represented. This was reflected in her design, where her large head is more reminiscent of a baby than of a human adult. In her appearance with Cab Calloway in Minnie the Moocher, for example, she's just a scared little girl who has run away from home. Characters would often try to take a peep at her and in many episodes, she would have to fight off a man who was trying to get fresh with her.ĭespite all this, she still maintained a girlish innocence. For this reason, there was a lot more sexuality in the cartoons themselves, she not only has cleavage, but in the episode above and in Bamboo Isle, Â she didn't even have a top on. Unlike most cartoons we see today, her episodes were made to appeal to adult audiences. Adult Animationīetty was one of the first sex symbols of animation and she remains one of the most famous. She was given her own series that same year and dubbed "The Queen of the Animated Screen." Her cartoon series was so popular that many other characters got their start in her series, including Popeye. Becoming A Starīy 1932, Betty was the lead star of the Talkarttoons. Creators say that her appearance in the movie did help inspire her name later on though. Many people believe that Betty got her name in the 1931 cartoon Betty Co-ed, but the Betty this one was named after was a different character in the film. In Betty's first cartoon appearances, the supporting character didn't have a real name and was called "Nancy Lee" or "Nan McGrew" in a few episodes. As Betty proved to be more and more popular, she evolved into a full human by 1932, her floppy ears turned into hoop earrings and her poodle nose was morphed into a cute button nose. The character was based on the looks of singer Helen Kane (pictured), best known for her song "I Wanna Be Loved By You," and actress Clara Bow, who was the inspiration for Betty's Brooklyn accent. Because she was created for Bimbo, she was originally an anthropomorphic poodle character, but she still had her Betty charms. A Real Dogīetty's first appearance was in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, where she was designed to be an object of lust for Bimbo, a dog character who was currently the lead in many of Max Fleischer's Talkartoons. A relic of the jazz era, she was an icon of hope for Americans suffering through the Great Depression as her flapper persona reminded them of good times from the past. Betty Boop celebrated her 80th birthday this month, as her first appearance on film occurred on August 9, 1930.
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