The image of this retro girl, coquettishly and at the same time bashfully showing 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 the black and white animated films of the 30s - the inimitable Betty Boop.
Who is Betty?
Huge sad eyes, tiny lips, surprisingly raised eyebrows and luxurious long legs, which she constantly emphasized, wearing short skirts - that was one of the most popular cartoon heroines at the dawn of the development of this industry. The success of Betty Boop was incredible: the audience loved her no less than live film actors.
Today, many believe that Betty liked the audience only because of its curvaceous and revealing outfits. However, contemporaries of this heroine adored her not only for this. An unusual manner of singing and an 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 movie stars.
Background of the appearance of the character
Many will be surprised by the fact that the cartoons were originally created for an adult audience. Only with the light hand of Walt Disney did they turn into children's entertainment. Betty Boop is a cartoon character who owes his 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 Fleischer that humanity owes the appearance of many popular animated techniques, as well as the invention of karaoke. The Paramound management quickly evaluated the Talkartoons cartoons released by the brothers and signed a contract with them. Soon, Fleischer paintings began to appear constantly in theaters, where they enjoyed the love of the audience. Initially, their main character was a dog named Bimbo, but soon everything changed.
Nameless songbox from Talkartoons cartoons
In 1930, in one of the episodes, Bimbo was a waiter and tried to look after a charming singer working in the same restaurant. The beloved of the protagonist really liked everyone and soon began to appear in all the cartoons, gradually pushing Bimbo.
By the way! At first, the long-legged charming woman was ... a dog, only humanized, but over time they began to portray her as a girl. The appearance of the heroine reflected the fashion for the female beauty of the 30s, but the style of singing was borrowed from the popular singer in bohemian circles, Helen Kane. 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 her as a surname.
In 1931, the heroine finally turned into a man, and her canine ears transformed into earrings, which became an integral attribute of the character. In the Silly Scandals series, Bimbo's girlfriend finally got 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: 30s Sex Symbol
At first, Betty spoke and sang in the voice of Annabelle Little. Later, she was voiced by several more actresses, until May Cuestal appeared.
Thanks to her, the heroine found a pleasant timbre and a bewitching manner of singing, which won the hearts of Americans. In addition, the Betty Boop cartoons differed from the others in the magnificent music of the best jazz musicians of that time. Thanks to this, the heroine gradually turned into a "hot" jazz player, who was imitated by millions of spectators throughout the country and abroad.
Since 1932, 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, she remained a worthy girl Betty Boop.
The cartoon gained such popularity that comics began to be released on its basis. 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 heroine’s popularity: despite the difficult life, the audience continued to go to the cinema to watch their favorite.
In the same period, the popularity of singer Helen Kane, one of the prototypes of Betty Boop, began to decline. Therefore, she sued the Fleischer brothers, demanding to pay her a giant compensation at that time - a quarter of a million dollars. In a statement, Helen accused the creators of Betty of having copied her image, as well as her singing style when creating her character, which caused Kane herself huge losses.
During the trial, the Fleischers not only defeated all the singer’s arguments, but also publicized the information that Kane herself had “borrowed” her signature song and manner of performance from the black singer of the 20s, Esther Jones.
Sunset popularity
In 1935, the notorious Hayes Code, which acted as strict censorship, began to operate in Hollywood. Because of him, the creators of Betty Boop had to change the appearance of the heroine. Her bandage on her leg disappeared, her dresses became longer, and the cutouts were less frank. The character of the girl also transformed. From a jazz singer and actress looking for love and adventure, Betty turned into a housewife. In addition, the style of the cartoon itself has changed: instead of groovy jazz rhythms, sugary melodies “a la Disney” sounded in it, and 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 - in 1939 it was closed.
Betty in later years
Despite the closure of Betty Boop, her image continued to influence the culture of the United States. In the 40-50s. The pin-up style, largely copying Betty's most famous poses, gained fame. Also in subsequent years, Betty Boop's image was often used in advertising.
In the late 80s, this character again interested the audience, already in retro quality. Pictures with the heroine began to decorate literally everything.
In the wake of this, several color cartoons about Miss Boop were shot, but they were inferior to the black and white original.
In 2004, the rather frank series “Multreality” was released. One of his main characters named Tutsi was copied from Betty Boop.
Interesting Facts
- Betty's age is always 16 years old.
- At first it was believed that this heroine was Jewish by origin. However, with the spread of fascist ideas, Boop's biography was tweaked. Since 1936, Betty has become a Native American, whose ancestors conquered the Wild West.
- Of all the 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 her during a performance in a restaurant.
"Betty Boop": a cartoon in Russian
At the peak of the popularity of Betty Boop in the USSR, they did not know anything about it. Only in the 80-90s, domestic viewers got the opportunity to get acquainted with this heroine. First of all, thanks to 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 sight were the most enthusiastic, despite the disgusting translation, because the tapes 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 cartoon episodes into Russian, but it is quite 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 the distant past. Unfortunately, many cartoons with her participation are still not digitized, and the Paramound studio does not plan to do this. It remains to be hoped that they will change their policies and make every effort to preserve these works of art for posterity, before it is too late.