Betty Boop

Betty Boop was born in NYC on August 9, 1930 and miraculously made her debut that same day in Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Max and David Fleischer's Talkartoon series. She was the pen and ink daughter of Grim Natwick, the Fleischer Studios animator who had an eye for popular singer Helen Kane and movie star Clara Bow. Unfortunately Betty was born mute and her screen voice was supplied by a number of actresses including Little Ann Little (Ann Rothschild), Bonnie Poe, and Mae Questel, the voice for the majority of Betty's 121 films.

As Betty quickly matured she became a hot property for Fleischer Studios, and in those pre-code days, a "hot" property on the screen with her short dresses, high heels, and garter belt. Betty is known as the first and most famous sex symbol on the animated screen, long before Jessica Rabbit, whose costume comes directly from Betty's wardrobe. However, by late 1933 the content of her films was affected by the National Legion of Decency and the Production Code, and cute replaced sexy for the balance of her films.

Our girl in her pre-code days.

You too can learn to be a cartoonist.

In case you thought character merchandising started with Star Wars.

Betty Boop as Snow White (1933). The most surreal cartoon you are likely to see.

The Inspirations

As to Natwick's inpirations, we all know about Clara Bow and what a major presence and influence she was on the flapper look of the twenties, but who was Helen Kane? Born as Helen Schroeder, she attended St. Anselm’s Parochial School in the Bronx. By the time she was 15, Helen, who had only appeared in school productions, was onstage professionally, touring the Orpheum Circuit with the Marx Brothers. Her first performance at the Paramount Theater in Times Square proved to be her career's launching point. She was singing "That's My Weakness Now", when she interpolated the scat lyrics “boop-boop-a-doop.” I guess that really grabbed Grim.

Helen Kane - boop-boop-a-doop!

Does Grim really love me?

Helen sings Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930)

The Voices

Ann Rothschild broke into show business in the 1925 "Greenwich Village Follies" and was named "Little Ann Little" because she was only 4'10" tall and weighed 76 pounds. After "Dizzy Dishes" premiered, Paramount, who distributed Fleischer productions, held an audition for a girl to do the voice for the new character. Ann was chosen from among many other girls and provided the voice for a few cartoons before going on the road with a Betty Boop vaudeville act. The act consisted, in part, of a drawing demonstration by Pauline Comanor, a "movie cartoonist" who drew Ann as Betty and handed out the drawings to lucky audience members.

Little Ann Little

Mae Questel's parents encouraged her to study dramatics and singing. Although she had offers to appear in stage productions, her protective parents felt she was too young at the time. She was still a teenager when she won a Helen Kane look alike contest and in 1931 Max Fleischer caught her act and asked her to do the voice for Betty Boop. Mae was Betty from the time she came to the studio until the series ended in 1939. She was also the voice of Olive Oyl for over 20 years, and used Zasu Pitts as her vocal inspiration.

Mae Questel

Surprise, I'm a star that nobody sees, but the pay is good.

Betty Boop - What do you think - Allure?

Some of the images in this post come from the out-of-print, but wonderful book, The Fleischer Story (1976), by Leslie Cabarga.