Betty Boop - cartoon character: history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The image of this retro girl, coquettishly and at the same time bashfully demonstrating her charms, can often be seen on various T-shirts, handbags and other accessories. Her image is used in advertising much more often than Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. We are talking about the star of black-and-white animated films of the 30s - the inimitable Betty Boop.

Who is Betty

Huge sad eyes, tiny lips, raised eyebrows in surprise and luxurious long legs, which she constantly emphasized by wearing short skirts - this is exactly what one of the most popular cartoon characters looked like at the dawn of this industry. The success of Betty Boop was incredible: the audience loved her no less than living film actors.

Today, many believe that Betty liked the audience only because of her magnificent forms and skimpy outfits. However, the contemporaries of this heroine adored her not only for this. Unusual manner of singing andan unusual children's voice helped her win the hearts of absolutely everyone. Subsequently, this image and many branded "chips" were copied by Marilyn Monroe and other film stars.

The background of the appearance of the character

Many people will be surprised by the fact that cartoons were originally created for an adult audience. It was only with the light hand of W alt Disney that they turned into children's entertainment. Betty Boop is a cartoon character that owes its appearance to Max Fleischer. At first, he specialized in drawing comics. However, later, together with his brothers, he opened his own animation studio, which produces animated films for adults.

It is to the Fleischers that mankind owes the appearance of many popular cartoon techniques, as well as the invention of karaoke. The management of the Paramound company quickly appreciated the Talkartoons cartoons produced by the brothers and signed a contract with them. Soon, the Fleischer paintings began to appear constantly in cinemas, where they enjoyed the love of the audience. Initially, their main character was the dog Bimbo, but soon everything changed.

Nameless Talkartoons singer

In 1930, in one of the episodes, Bimbo was a waiter and tried to woo a pretty singer working in the same restaurant. Everyone liked the beloved of the protagonist very much and soon began to appear in all cartoons, gradually pushing Bimbo.

By the way! At first, the long-legged beauty was … a dog, only humanized, but over time, herbegan to portray a girl. The appearance of the heroine reflected the fashion for female beauty of the 30s, but the singing style was borrowed from the singer Helen Kane, popular in bohemian circles. One of the songs (That's My Weakness Now) in her performance contained the phrase: "Boop, boop, a doop", which became the crown for Betty, and also served as her last name.

In 1931, the heroine finally turned into a human, and her dog ears were transformed into rings-earrings, which became an integral attribute of the character. In the Silly Scandals series, Bimbo's girlfriend finally has a name - Betty Boop. And next year, she became the heroine of a separate series of animated films Betty Boop. In total, 90 issues of this cartoon were released.

Betty Boop: the sex symbol of the 30s

At first, Betty spoke and sang in the voice of Annabelle Little. She was later voiced by several other actresses until Mae Questal appeared.

Thanks to her, the heroine acquired a pleasant timbre and a bewitching manner of singing, which won the hearts of Americans. In addition, the Betty Boop cartoons were distinguished from others by the great music of the best jazz musicians of the time. Thanks to this, the heroine gradually turned into a "hot" jazz player, who was imitated by millions of spectators across the country and beyond.

Starting from 1932, the Fleischers deliberately focused on the charms of the main character. Despite the image of the sex symbol of the era, the owners of the studio made sure not to cross the line, and therefore, being an incredibly seductive beauty,remained a worthy Betty Boop girl.

The cartoon became so popular that a comic book was based on it. In addition, the image of Betty was actively used in advertising: dolls, clothes, perfumes and all kinds of accessories associated with her were produced.

Even the beginning of the Great Depression did not shake the popularity of the heroine: despite the hard life, the audience continued to go to the cinema to look at their favorite.

In the same period, the popularity of the singer Helen Kane, one of the prototypes of Betty Boop, began to wane. Therefore, she sued the Fleischer brothers, demanding to pay her a gigantic compensation for those times - a quarter of a million dollars. In her statement, Helen accused the creators of Betty of copying her image, as well as the singing style when creating their character, which brought huge losses to Kane herself.

During the process, the Fleischers not only crushed all the singer's arguments, but also made public the information that Kane herself had previously "borrowed" her signature song and performance style from the black singer of the 20s Esther Jones.

The decline of popularity

In 1935, the notorious Hayes Code began to operate in Hollywood, which acted as strict censorship. Because of him, the creators of Betty Boop had to change the appearance of the heroine. Gone was her bandage on her leg, dresses were longer and her necklines were less revealing. The character of the girl also transformed. From a jazz singer and actress looking for love and adventure, Betty has turned into a housewife. In addition, it has changedthe style of the cartoon itself: instead of groovy jazz rhythms, cloying melodies “a la Disney” sounded in it, and the surrealism inspired by the works of Salvador Dali also disappeared.

As a result of all these transformations, the popularity of Betty Boop began to decline. The new characters did not save the project either - it was closed in 1939.

Betty in later years

Despite the closure of Betty Boop, her image has continued to influence US culture. In the 40-50s. the pin-up style gained popularity, largely copying Betty's most famous poses. Also in later years, Betty Boop's image was often used in advertisements.

In the late 80s, this character again interested the audience, already as a retro. Literally everything began to decorate with pictures with the heroine.

Several color Miss Boop cartoons were made in the wake of this, but they were inferior to the black and white original.

In 2004, a rather frank TV series "Multireality" was released. One of his main characters named Tootsie was copied from Betty Boop.

Interesting facts

• Betty's age is always 16.
• At first it was believed that this heroine was Jewish by origin. However, with the spread of fascist ideas, Boop's biography was corrected. Since 1936, Betty has become a Native American whose ancestors conquered the Wild West.
• From all Betty Boop cartoons of the 30s. there was only one color, and in it the heroine was red.
• One of Marilyn Monroe's signature songs - I Wanna Be Loved by You -was first performed by Helen Kane. In the 1985 cartoon, Betty sings it during a restaurant performance.

"Betty Boop": cartoon in Russian

At the peak of Betty Boop's popularity in the USSR, nothing was known about her. Only in the 80-90s, domestic viewers got the opportunity to get acquainted with this heroine. First of all, thanks to the candy wrappers in Japanese and American chewing gums. Later, visitors to video salons were able to see the cartoon "Betty Boop" in Russian. Reviews about this spectacle were the most enthusiastic, despite the disgusting translation, because the cassettes were pirated. This was mainly due to the fact that the early domestic audience was not familiar with such a spectacle.

At the moment, there is a professional translation of individual episodes of the cartoon into Russian, but it is rather superficial. Therefore, most Russian-speaking viewers watch Betty Boop in the original, since there is not much text there.

Today Betty Boop symbolizes nostalgia for a distant past. Unfortunately, many cartoons with her participation have not yet been digitized, and the Paramund studio does not plan to do this. It is to be hoped that they will change their policy and make every effort to preserve these works of art for posterity before it is too late.