BETTY BOOP RUG COLLECTION! VIEW SHOPPING CART

We  ship worldwide! We'll Beat or Match any Price!!

Order Online! 5 STARS CUSTOMER REVIEWS!!! we accept all major credit cards & PayPal! electronic / personal checks & money orders accepted! 30 Day - 100% Money Back Guarantee!

Betty Boop – Who is She?

Betty Boop made her screen debut on August 9, 1930 in a cartoon called Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment of Max Fleischer's animated Talkartoon series. Betty evolved over time from a human/poodle girl to the very first animated sex symbol.

As her floppy ears changed to hoop earrings and her small black nose became a girlish button nose, Betty began to come alive with a personality of her own. Designed by Grim Natwick, a silent movie artist and illustrator who later became lead animator for the Disney Studios, Betty Boop was a combination of 20's actresses Helen Kane and Clara Bow. Ms. Bow didn't survive the switch to "talkies" because of her heavy Brooklyn accent but Fleischer gave Betty that same accent as a tribute to an actress he admired. The 1932 cartoon feature, "Any Rags" was Betty's first appearance as a finished animated woman, a flapper girl with a heart of gold and a doggie boyfriend named Bimbo. Betty Boop had emerged!

Star of the Talkartoons by 1932, Betty Boop was given her very own series that same year, beginning her official career with "Stopping the Show", a very entertaining short that put Betty on a traveling wagon selling fake medicine using her sex appeal to bamboozle the locals. She was unabashedly sexual is this first and in later shorts, complete with cleavage, high heels and very short, strapless dresses. Her sexuality, however, was always tinged with innocence and a generous spirit. Her official age was 16, much too young for anything but the suggestion of maturity. Her racy appeal was aimed at adults, the target audience; she wasn't actually seen in children's programming until decades later, long after the television was invented.

Betty's famous "Boop-oop-a-Doop" schtick was borrowed from Helen Kane, one of the singer/actresses from which she was modeled. (Ms. Kane actually brought suit again Fleischer for "deliberate caricature" but failed to live up to the burden of proof and lost the suit.) Her songs and speech are often peppered with double entendre, as evidenced in a reply she once made to one of her rescuers from unwelcomed sexual advances, "..don't take my Boop-oop-a-Doop away!"

In 1933 The Production Code of Hollywood forced Betty Boop to tone down her personality and become a sort of maiden aunt spinster, albeit a young one, with innocent girlishness, longer hemlines and no cleavage or blatant sex appeal. The addition of a whacky inventor named Grampy and her puppy, Pudgy, also served to rob her of the spotlight and created an appeal to a juvenile audience. Alas, it was downhill from there for Betty! She had to dump her boyfriend, Bimbo, and work at a variety of jobs from waitress to schoolteacher and at time was a husbandless housewife.

Betty's spice turned to mush under the thumb of the Hollywood Production Code and the lively jazz music of her shorts gave way to pop tunes. Max Fleischer had always used his work to promote talented jazz bands like Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong but as his creativity was slowly choked out, the collaboration between jazz and cartoons was destroyed.

Marketers discovered Betty Boop in the 1980's and they revived her through collectibles, re-issued cartoons on VCR and in some theaters and even clothing. Betty's fans of that era were largely unaware of her star-studded past, her journey from silents to talkies, or her scandalous beginnings as a 1930's good-hearted sexpot. She's had two television specials, The Romance of Betty Boop in 1984 and The Betty Boop Movie Mystery in 1989 that boosted her appeal to the new generation of fans. In a black and white cameo in the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", Betty remarked that work had slowed since cartoons went to color but that she still has what it takes.

About the Author:

Larry Banders writes about movie memorabilia and collectibles.
He also covers tips on saving money with a Checks Unlimited coupon when buying
personal bank checks from printers like Current Checks

Betty Boop Rugs & Blankets: Ruginternational.com - Has a large selection of Betty Boop Rugs & Blanket at discount prices! www.ruginternational.com/BettyBoop.htm

Shop Securely   | Contact us |  Return Policy | Cancellation Policy |  Legal Policies | Privacy Policy | Copyright © 1989-2008 Rug International  Inc.