While an outgrowth of Jazz “scat singing,” testimony revealed that Miss Kane had witnessed a black performer, “Baby Esther” using a similar characterization in an act at the famous Cotton Club nightclub in Harlem some years earlier. But the largest evidence against Miss Kane’s case was her claims to the origins of her singing style. As Miss Kane’s claims seemed on the surface to be valid, it was proven that her appearance was not unique in that she and the Betty Boop character bore a resemblance to Clara Bow, another major star of Paramount. Interestingly, Paramount promoted the development of Betty Boop following Miss Kane’s decline. While Miss Kane had risen to fame in the 1920s as “The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Girl” star of stage, recordings, and films for Paramount, her career was over by 1930. This greatly affected the content of the films of Mae West at Paramount, as well as the Betty Boop cartoons until the end of the series.īetty Boop was the subject of additional publicity in 1934 when Helen Kane launched a major lawsuit against Max Fleischer and Paramount Studios for the “deliberate caricature” that produced “unfair competition” that exploited her personality and image.
#BETTY BOOP COLLECTIBLES CODE#
The Production Code guidelines imposed on the Motion Picture Industry placed specific restrictions on the content films with references to sexual innuendo. However the content of her films was affected by the National Legion of Decency and the Production Code of 1933. But her best appearances are considered to be in the first three years due to her “Jazz Baby” character with innocent sexuality, which was aimed at adults.
#BETTY BOOP COLLECTIBLES SERIES#
From this point on, she was crowned “The Queen of the Animated Screen.” The series was hugely popular throughout the 1930s, lasting until 1939. Pictured right: Wade 6″ Betty Boop Christmas Present – launched in 2006īetty Boop became the star of the Talkartoons by 1932, and was given her own series in that same year beginning with Stopping the Show. Betty made a cameo appearance in the feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), in her traditional black and white, saying work had “gotten slow since cartoons went to color,” but she still had “what it takes.” (The official Betty Boop website describes the titular character as a “prototype” of Betty.) In all, there were at least 12 Screen Songs cartoons that featured either Betty Boop or a similar character.īetty appeared in the first “Color Classic” cartoon ‘Poor Cinderella’, her only theatrical color appearance (1934). Though the song may have led to Betty’s eventual christening, any references to Betty Co-ed as a Betty Boop vehicle are incorrect. In individual cartoons she was called “Nancy Lee” and “Nan McGrew”, usually served as a girlfriend to studio star Bimbo.Īlthough it has been assumed that Betty’s first name was established in the 1931 Screen Songs cartoon Betty Co-ed, this “Betty” was, an entirely different character. Betty appeared in ten cartoons as a supporting character, a flapper girl with more heart than brains. Her floppy poodle ears became hoop earrings, and her black poodle nose became a girl’s button-like nose. Pictured left: Wade Betty Boop Party Time Betty became finalized as completely human by 1932 in the cartoon Any Rags. While the original design was rather ugly and awkward, she was developed further after Natwick’s departure under Berny Wolf, Seymour Kneitel, Roland Crandall, and Willard Bowsky. Little Ann Little), Bonnie Poe, and most notably, Mae Questel who began in 1931 and continued with the role until 1938. The character’s voice was first performed by Margie Hines, and was later provided by several different voice actresses including Kate Wright, Ann Rothschild (a.k.a. By direction of Dave Fleischer, Natwick designed the original character in the mode of an anthropomorphic French poodle.
The character was modeled after a combination of Helen Kane, the famous popular singer of the 1920s and contract player at Paramount Pictures, the studio that distributed Fleischer’s cartoons and Clara Bow who was a popular actress in the 1920s who had not managed to survive the transition to sound because of her strong Brooklyn accent, yet became a trademark for Betty. Pictured right: San Francisco Music Box Company Betty Boop™ Piano Trinket Box- plays “I Wanna Be Loved By You” She was originally designed by Grim Natwick, a veteran animator of the silent era who would become lead director and animator for the Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney studios. Betty Boop made her first appearance on Augin the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Fleischer’s Talkartoon series.
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