Today, we look at a character that was involved in one of the most famous rivalries in popular culture. It's right up there with the New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox or Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi. That's right: Walt Disney vs. Fleischer Studios!
Okay, so maybe the idea of that rivalry isn't springing immediately to mind for people. If you're thinking it's about who has the most iconic cartoon character in the U.S., you might think the real rivalry is Disney vs. Warner Bros. If you think it's about theme parks, you might think it's Disney vs. Universal. Or if it was about animated movies, you might think it's Disney vs. Dreamworks (which is also, technically, Universal at this point). Heck, when I was a kid, that rivalry was between Disney and Don Bluth Studios. The thing is that Disney's been able to hang in there so long and other animation studios have changed hands, changed names or gone under so often that Disney has had a lot of rivals. But back in the days when cartoon shorts were still in black and white, the Fleischer Brothers were some of the biggest movers and shakers in animation.
Max, Dave and Lou Fleischer were children of Austro-Hungarian immigrants. Max was an artist and inventor and nominally the head of the studio (it was actually cofounded with Dave). He invented the rotoscope, a device used in animation and special effects studios to this day. Dave was a performer of many stripes and was usually the director of the Fleischer shorts. And Lou was a music arranger and composer and worked in Fleischer Studios music department. While Disney's shorts reflected a sort of Midwestern, country aesthetic, Fleischer's shorts had a sort of urban grit. Probably because they were being made in New York City during the Great Depression.
And one of the characters who gave it that vibe is the one and only Betty Boop.
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Betty Boop |
Betty Boop first appeared in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes and she was a dog. Not an insult. She was literally designed as an anthropomorphic dog. You see, she was originally created to be the girlfriend of the studio's star Bimbo, who was an anthropomorphic dog living in a world of anthropomorphic animals. In about a year's time, though, Betty had evolved into the human character she's known as today. At that time, Betty became a star and both Bimbo and Fleischer's previous star, Koko the Clown, became Betty's sidekicks.
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Betty Boop in her earlier canine form. |
Betty was designed as something of a parody of singer and actress Helen Kane. Though, Helen Kane's act and vocal style were themselves stolen from an African-American nightclub singer named Esther Jones aka “Baby Esther”. This actually came up when Helen Kane tried to sue Fleischer Studios for stealing her likeness. Betty was also voiced by a number of different actresses. There was Margie Hines, Little Ann Little, Harriet Lee, Mae Questel and Bonnie Poe during the original Fleischer run and a whole lot afterward. Mae Questel actually got to revisit the role when she voiced Betty for a few lines in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I don't think a lot of people have actually watched Betty Boop cartoons, just knowing her as more of an iconic image. And in that sense, what most people talk about is her design. Which is understandable, considering how other than her big, cartoon head, she's designed as a leggy woman in a short dress, usually with one garter showing. There was definitely some thought of sex appeal going into that design. But those cartoons, at least the ones from roughly 1931 to roughly 1933, are something else. The thing to remember about Betty Boop is that she's not really the main source of comedy in these shorts, the world is. Betty lives in a world of anthropomorphic animals and surreal rubber-hose style sight gags that looks like 1930s New York City. Crazy things happen around her. Sometimes inanimate objects will be alive for a minute or two for the sake of a joke. This isn't anything unusual for cartoons in the 1930s, but the Fleischers managed to put a nominally human character in the center of it all as kind of an anchor. And Betty just rolls with it. Sometimes she even seems to be thriving in it. She even ran for president in that world.
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Betty Boop title card, with subcredits for Bimbo and Koko |
The music is also worth mentioning. Fleischer made good use of the music scene that was available to them working in New York City. They even got famed blues artist Cab Calloway to provide tracks for a couple of cartoons, including his famous song “Minnie the Moocher”.
But things don't always last. Those surreal early 1930s shorts went away around 1934 with the introduction of the Hays Code, a set of rules that was applied across the whole movie industry. Betty and her world ended up being toned down. Betty's looks and actions became less sexy and flirty. The surreal animal world ended up being replaced with one largely populated with other humans. And Bimbo and Koko were replaced by a more normal human supporting cast. There was Betty's pet dog Pudgy, her nephew Junior, an erstwhile love interest named Fred and an old inventor called Grampy. The old surreal stuff still popped up every now and then. In the 1934 cartoon There's Something About a Soldier, she recruits soldiers to fight a war against giant mosquitoes. In “The Swing School” she teaches a class full of animals, of which Pudgy is a student. But overall, it all just got kind of boring.
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Betty Boop and Pudgy |
And so, Betty Boop began to fade as a cartoon star. Which wasn't a big blow to Fleischer because they had a new star by the name of Popeye the Sailor (we'll talk about him next time).
So, what happened to Betty Boop since then?
Well, barring some of the music from her cartoons being released on vinyl in the '60s and '70s, the biggest thing is that she became a merchandising powerhouse. Marketers rediscovered Betty Boop in the 1980s and before long her image had outpaced her exposure in film. She's benn put on pretty much any consumer good that could be marketed to women. Everything from purses to jewelry to pajama pants to a cuckoo clock. (I'd say she's kind of become the American Hello Kitty, but that's a discussion for another time).
And what else?
Oh, yeah. She went to Broadway! A musical titled Boop! The Musical with music by David Foster, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead and a book by Bob Martin debuted off-broadway on November 19, 2023. It would open on Broadway officially on April 5, 2025. The musical starred Jasmine Amy Rogers as Betty and chronicles an adventure where she travels from “Toon Town” to the real world's New York City. Reviews were positive-to-mixed.
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Boop! the Musical |
So, Betty's been around even if she's not likely to headline any new cartoons in the near future. In general, she's transformed into more of just a pop culture image. But don't write off those peak era Betty Boop cartoons if you like surreal visual humor (though, all the old disclaimers apply regarding depictions of sexism and racism in old cartoons).
Until next time.