INTERNATIONAL STAR
As has been the case with jazz, Betty Boop cartoons have traditionally found especially appreciative audiences in Europe and Asia as treasured artifacts of American culture.
Japanese audiences cheered during initial screenings of “A Language All My Own,” a 1935 short in which Betty flew to Tokyo and “booped” in Japanese. Myron Waldman, who directed that short, says he interviewed Japanese students in New York to make sure Betty’s movements and words would be culturally appropriate. Jean-Paul Sartre reportedly searched all of Paris for Betty’s films. Gertrude Stein was also said to have been a boop-o-phile.
In London, Betty enjoyed a resurgence of popularity when cartoonists obtained and restored some early Fleischer cartoons, which became favorites at the ICA moviehouses during the 1970s. Similar revivals in the United States helped spur sales of licensed Betty Boop merchandise worldwide.