Betty Boop was a paradoxical character, part bold adventuress, part damsel in distress. Her racy escapades (at least before the production code came into full effect) were intended for mature audiences, but her sparkling and gutsy persona have earned her enduring popularity among children and adults alike.
When Betty Boop first appeared in 1930, she was a dog. She was created to be a girlfriend sidekick to Bimbo the dog. However, her character was so popular that she was soon the star of their cartoons. She was also gradually transformed into a human, though Bimbo remained in canine form. Betty's dog ears changed into a large pair of hoop earrings and her figure was rounded into Mae West inspired curves.
Many women provided Betty's voice over the years, including Annabel Little, Margie Heinz, Kate Wright and Bonnie Poe. As Betty's speech was clearly inspired by baby-voiced singer Helen Kane, it was fitting that the most popular and prolific Betty voice belonged to Mae Questal, a singer who had won a Helen Kane look-alike contest in her teens. From 1932 through 1939 she spoke for Betty in most of the over 80 cartoons Fleischer Studios produced. She was equally prolific as the voice of Olive Oyl in the first Popeye cartoons.
As most of Betty's appeal came from her sexy and wild persona, her golden age was from 1930-34, before the Hays code prodded Hollywood to clean up its product. In the early years, her costume consisted of a black strapless mini dress, high heels, gold hoop earrings, two identical bangles and a garter on her left leg. She was an adventurous party girl who cavorted everywhere from the tropics to Kansas City.
The early cartoons were often surreal, full of unusual flourishes. For example, the moon gets sick from eating too many of Betty's pancakes, so two stars walk up and take it off of a hook and carry it away on a stretcher; another star hangs a lantern on the hook. In another one the sun gets chimney smoke up its nose and sneezes, prompting a bird to offer it a handkerchief. And there are also the helpful inanimate objects: empty seats in a theater that clap with their armrests, a gun that sniffs out its prey on the ground like a pig searching for truffles and a helpful table leg that pulls down the hem of Betty's dress when it pops up (of course Betty thanks the table). Betty's cartoons were showcases for artists exploring the immense possibilities of animation.
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