Betty Boop Tin Sign – tried to take her boop-oop-a-doop away
THEY TRIED TO TAKE HER BOOP-OOP-A-DOOP AWAY
Betty’s flapper style and disarmingly innocent ******ity attracted passionate fans, but it also made her some enemies among moralists who felt her boop-oop-a-doop left too little to the imagination.
According to former Fleischer animator Myron Waldman, the 1933 short Boilesque” was banned in Philadelphia for being too risqué. In the same year, self-censorship arising from complaints about ****** content in films led to the brief disappearance of the garter on Betty’s left thigh, which was reportedly returned due to public demand.
A year later, just as Boop-o-mania reached its peak, a spit-curled singer named Helen Kane filed a $250,000 lawsuit charging that Betty had stolen her boop-oop-a-doop and loopy style, thereby causing her career to wane as Betty’s star rose. When the case came to trial, other performers testified that they had used “boop-oop-a-doop” and similar phrasings prior to Helen Kane; the singer lost her case.
By 1934, the overriding influence of the Hays office – creators of what was to become today’s movie rating system – caused a profound shift in the way Betty was presented to the public. Betty Boop began showing far less leg, and her décolletage was often obscured by prim buttons.
Her lecherous suitors disappeared. Eventually, Betty was nudged from the limelight by Pudgy, a cute pet pooch who was forever getting her in trouble, and the lovable Grampy, who helped Betty solve problems with his wacky inventions. As World War II loomed, the market for Betty’s films at home and abroad thinned; the series ended with the release of “Yip, Yip, Yippy” in 1939.
March 27th, 2011 at 9:59 am
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