August 8, 1930– Betty Boop Makes Her Debut
Little Betty Boop was born, fully formed and fully sexual; a Jazz Age flapper, she was the creation of producer Max Fleischer and Grim Natwick, a veteran animator from Walt Disney Studios.
She made a series of short films, including a cameo in a Popeye film, but found real fame in the 1932 short, Minnie The Moocher with Cab Calloway and His Orchestra.
Betty Boop was a single girl with big boobs. She enjoyed the nightlife, but her antics were just too much for the National Legion of Decency and the Hay’s Production Code of 1934. Forced to tone down her act, Boop lost some of her popularity, but she continued to attract fans through the decades. Boop has no political or religious affiliation, except that she is associated with the Party party. She has moved easily between black and white and color. She made a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), appearing in glorious black and white.
Throughout her long career, Boop has been a proponent of Sexual Freedom, Women’s Rights, Gay Liberation, and the health benefits of drinking, smoking and doing cocaine. She has been romantically linked to Popeye, Felix T. Cat, Sluggo; that Russian, Boris Badenov, Woody Woodpecker, Daddy Warbucks, Top Cat, Gumby, Mr. Magoo, and Betty Rubble.
Boop performed in 90 films between 1930 and 1939, and she was also featured in comic strips and mass merchandising of the era. Her first movie was Dizzy Dishes (1930), the seventh installment in Fleischer’s Talkartoon series. Early film star Clara Bow is rumored to have inspired Boop, though Fleischer insisted that it was Helen Kane. Kane sued Fleischer over Boop’s signature “Boop Oop a Doop” line. Because her own singing voice was a deep baritone, she was dubbed by in her musical numbers by several singing actors, but most often by Helen Kane, who even resembled Boop. Toward the end of her career, Boop took supporting roles, always playing a flapper with more heart than brains, and usually serving as the girlfriend of big studio star Bimbo.
Bimbo in Bimbo’s Initiation (1931), screen-grab via YouTube
Bimbo was the leading man in Fleischer’s Talkartoons series, He was the main rival of Walt Disney‘s Mickey Mouse. His first appearance was in Hot Dog (1930), but he really beefed-up after 1931, creating a more butch image. Bimbo was actually his professional name, his given name was Pooch T. Pup. In the 1920s, the word “Bimbo” was associated with tough guys, and it made a perfect name for a performer who was gay, but deeply in the closet. A half-century after retiring, Bimbo had a comeback as the co-star in a television special, The Betty Boop Hollywood Movie Mystery (1989), and then in Betty Boop’s Big Break (1990). He has continued to appear in various Betty Boop merchandise.
My favorite Boop performance is in The Betty Boop Limited (1932), where she does the terrific tune Ain’tcha, originally recorded by Helen Kane for her live-action appearance in the film Pointed Heels (1929). It is voiced by Mae Questel in The Betty Boop Limited. Boop’s cover of the song has been heard by over six million people worldwide and remains the most popular rendition of the song, surpassing Kane’s original.
Some girls keep their sweeties guessing,
But I am different, I’m confessing
That I’m crazy over you!
Oh, I admit that you’re my big moment;
I never knew what a steady beau meant,
Till you came my way;
Now, listen while I say:
Ain’tcha kinda glad? And ain’tcha kinda gay?
When you hear me say I loves ya,
Oh, tell me, baby, ain’tcha?
And don’t you kinda miss, a little bit of bliss,
When a hug or kiss I gives ya!
Oh, tell me, baby, don’tcha?
Pretty soon, there’ll be a honeymoon,
And to the preacher we will go,
And in a year, maybe, honey dear,
We’ll have a boop-boop-a-doop, boop-boop-a-doop!
Oh! Ain’tcha kinda glad? And ain’tcha kinda gay?
When you hear me say I loves ya,
Oh, tell me, baby, ain’tcha?
Boop-boop-a-doop!
And didn’t you used to say, that on some future day,
That you’d buy lingerie for your little baby, huh?
Oh, tell me, baby, didn’tcha?
Ooh-ooh!
And can’t you take me, please, down to Tiffany’s,
And buy some rings and things for your little baby, hmmm?
Oh, tell me, honey, can’tcha?
Now, if you don’t then I’ll get mad and I won’t be nice and sweet to you,
You know what I’ll do? I’ll get the blues,
Then I’ll refuse to boop-boop-a-doop, boop-boop-a-doop!
Oh, when everything is set, ain’tcha gonna get,
A parlor, kitchenette and twin beds, no?
Oh, tell me, baby, ain’tcha?
And ain’tcha willingly gonna neck with me,
‘Cause it’s plain to see that I loves ya!
Oh, tell me, baby, bop-op-e-dop-a-da, ain’tcha?
Mack Gordon / Max Rich
I knew Boop somewhat. We were cast in a production of Lil’ Abner at the Chateau d’ Ville Dinner Theatre in 1977, but Boop was dismissed from the role of “Mammy Yokum” before rehearsals even began because she was a cartoon. At the first readthrough, she told me that her dream role was Fosca in Stephen Sondheim‘s difficult musical, Passion.
She has had some work done, but looks pretty swell as she celebrates her 93rd birthday today, surrounded by friends and fans, at her lovely home in the Holmby Hills section of sunny Los Angeles.
