Most people know who Betty Boop is, as the character appears on products ranging from apparel to home electronics. But Few know how Betty Boop came to be, how old the character is, or how she has changed through the years. Here is a bit of background on the famous cartoon.
Betty’s Beginnings
Cartoonist Max Fleischer created the Betty Boop character, originally intending her to look like a French poodle. Over time, the design morphed and he drew inspiration for her look from singer Helen Kane, who herself was a copy of jazz singer Esther Jones, better known as Baby Esther. Betty Boop’s debut was in a cartoon called Dizzy Dashers on August 9, 1930, where she appeared as a French poodle. Fleischer completed the human form of the Betty Boop character by turning her poodle ears into hoop earrings and her dog nose into a human nose, and she made her first human appearance in the 1932 cartoon Any Rags. In her early days, she was sometimes referred to as Nan McGrew or Nancy Lee.
In 1932, Betty Boop was given her own cartoon series, starting with Stopping the Show. She has since appeared in a large number of other films and movies, including Poor Cinderella in 1934, The Romance of Betty Boop in 1985, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988. To date, the Betty Boop character has appeared in more than 100 cartoon episodes.
Betty Boop’s first voice actress was Margie Hines, who was followed by several actresses including Bonnie Poe, Kate Wright, and Little Ann Little. Mae Questel was the most prominent person to voice the character, and she did so from 1931 to 1998. Since Questel’s passing, Betty Boop has been voiced by Cindy Robinson, Tress MacNeille, and Sandy Fox.
A Cartoon Icon
Betty Boop came to be known as a sex symbol largely due to her appearance in a cartoon titled Minnie the Moocher. In it, she was set apart from other female cartoon characters in both appearance and personality. As opposed to other cartoons, Betty Boop was decidedly adult and modeled a sexualized woman, rather than a childish character. The situations Betty Boop was placed in were also adult in nature, and often included male characters making overt sexual advances at her and being physically aggressive, such as in the 1932 cartoon episodes Chess-Nuts and Boop-Oop-a-Doop.
Slight changes were made to Betty Boop during the mid 1930s, but her appearance largely remained the same. She became more well known after being paired with established characters of the day in cartoon specials and shorts. She was also featured in her own comic strip, Betty Boop, from 1934 to 1937. This series was revived as Betty Boop and Felix in 1984, and ran until 1988.
Since the 1960s, Betty Boop has been drawn in color, as opposed to black and white. The release of VHS tapes, and later DVD collections, led to a revival in Betty Boop’s popularity and her introduction to new generations of fans. Today, Betty Boop is a cartoon and cultural icon, whose legacy has spawned a huge commercial franchise.
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