Betty Boop as the Red-headed Girl:
Originally this was a blog post about Leslie Cabarga and how he was the original “Mr. Boop” and fan of Betty.
I decided to change the the post to “The Redheaded Girl” and focus more of his Betty Boop debut comic. I don’t want people getting the wrong idea. I am not a fan of anyone in particular. People probably thinking but why doesn’t he draw redheaded Betty Boop anymore? Well he couldn’t.
He had to use the “color scheme” that King Features told him to.
The color palette for Betty that is famously known is “akin to Helen Kane,” which is jet-black hair, light green eyes. Betty also wears a red dress. The original Betty Boop in color had red hair and blue eyes.
Anyone who doesn’t know, Helen Kane, she had hazel green eyes and jet-black hair. So when we see Betty’s original color scheme, we can see how unique it is in contrast. And then we know that Helen Kane’s image wasn’t 100% stolen as she claimed. She wasn’t the sole “Boop-Boop-a-Doop” girl as there were many girls singing and using that persona from 1928 to 1931.
The “Boop” craze it died as of 1931, that is just when Helen Kane’s career also fizzled. Betty Boop was starting to appear as a dog lady more frequently. This was up until the character officially debuted as a human girl in “Stopping the Show” in 1932. Only then Kane saw Betty Boop as competition.
However King Features and the Fleischer Studios during the 1970s reverted Betty to look much like Helen Kane. So when Betty made her comeback in the 1980s, she had a Kane-ish appeal. Kane of course was dead, and nobody cared about her, and they still don’t to this day.
Clara Bow!? She was never forgotten. Apparently Liza Minnelli was emulating Bow as were many other women decades after her death, Even Marilyn Monroe paid homage to Bow.
Bow had the jazz baby persona. She however did not talk like a baby doll. She had the persona.
It is not an alternative palette, she was a redhead originally. The creators got rid of it. Black hair suits Betty, it looks better than the red hair. Anyone with a WORKING brain cell knows this to be true. The only people who don’t know that Betty was originally a redhead, are people who are NOT fans of the original series.
Those individuals know very little about Betty Boop or her origin.
Grim Natwick he created Betty Boop as a French poodle but she was a redhead. One day his original 1930-1931 concept for dog lady Betty appeared. I was very shocked. I knew she was a redhead in “Poor Cinderella” from 1934, but I never knew she already had been given red hair by her original creator.
The cartoons were supposed to be ink. That is the pun on “Out of the Inkwell” series. So they have no color. So you wouldn’t know what Betty would look like colorized. The vivid red hair that Natwick used to color his earlier concept of Betty, it looks really amazing.
I later realized that when the Fleischers and Paramount were arguing over Clara Bow, that they had obviously used her fame to promote Betty. Paramount a greedy corporation admitted to this many times.
Throughout the 1930s, there were so many comparisons between La Boop to La Bow.
Personally I always knew that Clara Bow was the other model for Betty. I used to hide it. I didn’t want Betty to be associated with Bow. I thought Bow was a prostitute at one point. Turns out Betty was just as bad… If not WORSE. Bow was an ANGEL compared to the Betty Boop character.
I see a lot of women and girls they look to Betty Boop. But the reality is… Betty Boop is actually a bad role model… Betty teaches girls and women to become THOTS. But the brand owners make so much money off of the character alone. That they do not want to admit to Betty’s shady past.
And so Bow was the most beautiful and famous among all stars in Hollywood at that time. Unlike the other girls, Bow she had more of an allure. Helen Kane!? She was known to be jealous and envious of Clara Bow.
Unlike the other women in Hollywood like the PLUMP Helen Kane, Bow often reinvented herself. Clara Bow was like the original Marilyn Monroe and Madonna of her era.
Bow was also the original jazz baby, Bow was “Helen Kane” before Helen Kane.
For the later palette that the Fleischers created for Betty she had black hair.
She had two hair colors earlier on, but they later dropped the red. So Betty’s red hair became her alternative hair color and was never used again until 2023. One of the main concepts which is unique, is Betty Boop, she wears black high heels not red. That is another color scheme removed.
King Features when they rebooted Betty, they scrapped the black heels, and made them match her dress. Since then Betty has worn a green, blue and purple dresses. The brand owners have tried everything to modernize Betty Boop. She’s worn all the colors of the rainbow since the 1980s was her big comeback.
Not in cartoons but on merchandise. For example “The Romance of Betty Boop” according to research here, was a failed pilot episode. They were going to make more but it was unsuccessful. Possibly due to Betty being outdated and stuck in 1939. Instead of bringing her into the 1980s.
People don’t know what to do with Betty for TV or movies spin-offs.
Should they leave Betty in her 1930s world? Or bring her to the future? A Broadway show did that recently. But a majority of the characters are not very likeable expect Trisha portrayed by Angelica Hale. If Hale was not cast, I don’t think people would like Trisha much. Betty’s new boyfriend, he’s unlikeable… I prefer Bimbo or Fearless Freddie… And they didn’t really use the IP, the brand much…
I mean where’s Bimbo? Where’s KO-KO? Where’s anyone? So they only have to offer that pervert Grampy!? And Pudgy? Pudgy is the WORST character in the series. So boring… He ruined the original series. Cute!? Yeah, but really BORING. Way to kill off a franchise.
The only thing the Fleischers kept was Betty’s blue eyes. When Betty was rebooted she lost her blue eye color too. Sometimes she has black eyes, sometimes blue, and sometimes green.
Modern Betty with either have light green or dark green eyes.
During the 1970s, while Cabarga was researching Betty Boop, he played around with creating concepts and trying to pitch his art to mainstream media. In 1972, he created a comic strip called “Betty Bupe” a parody of Betty Boop.
At this time he was interviewing ex-Fleischer artists and ex-voice-over artists.
The best thing about Cabarga, is he knows Betty is a sex-symbol.
And he’s aware that that she is a “THOT” as I explained many times. The Fleischers today? They try to cover this up with faux-feminism. But those of us who know Betty, we know she is a hoe.
The Fleischers even made an animated sex-tape called “Welcome to Miami” featuring Popeye and Betty Boop.
In his comic, Betty is a redheaded girl who lives on a farm. Now where have we seen this recycled concept? Boop with Rose McGowan of course.
Certainly not “Pearl” featuring Mia Goth. Cabarga did some research on Betty Boop, and he found out that she was originally a redhead long before her debut in Poor Cinderella.
Grim Natwick had already created Betty Boop with red hair. This was backed up by ex-Fleischer staff, and also “Little Ann Little” one of the several voices of Betty Boop had confirmed this to be true.
Betty Boop was partially based on Clara Bow the “It” Girl, so it makes perfect sense. Paramount Pictures admitted several times that they were using Bow’s persona. Bow suffered from mental illness and retired in 1933, so she didn’t really see Betty Boop as competition.
Betty messes around but didn’t mean no harm, working in the field not making a penny. Betty is always flashing her boobs or crotch… She’s a known Jezebel…
You can find out more about Betty here. Please know that Betty Boop is not an innocent character… If you do not know the real history behind her risqué persona, it best you look it up. Her image according to her original creator Grim Natwick is all about S-E-X.
Betty holds on to her Hi-Di-Ho, a little Cab Calloway reference there. In other words her virginity…
Betty opens a kissing booth and sells kisses for $5, the men have to ask for “other” services. Technically Betty Boop here is a prostitute. But she always secretly was in the animated cartoons.
She hitchhikes to the city.
Betty then goes on to do Blackface, and shines shoes. This didn’t age well, she’s portrayed by a Black woman on the Broadway stage today…
Betty becomes a rancid alcoholic…
Betty starts to take the illegal route…
She gets raided, and goes to jail.
She is eventually let out, and back on her Hi-De-Ho.
Betty goes on to release Hi-De-Ho cherry chewing gum for five cents.
The joke or gag is that Cabarga got his first job after showing his portfolio to Topps Chewing Gum, Inc, by showing his samples.So when you look at Cabarga’s concepts, you know that he did this first.
He paved the way for fans to delve in fandom.
The only difference is he was talented, and other people, well they are not. Not everyone can be the greatest writer, or artist. We all have our own unique traits. Where you might be bad at one thing, you may be gifted at another. And that is basically fandom. His passion and hard work paid off. And he eventually worked as a Betty Boop illustrator.
Not to be biased, but I prefer Shamus Culhane, Ned Sonntag and Grim Natwick’s art of Betty Boop. I saw Myron Waldman’s too but sadly Waldman’s art is ugly. But that is just me. Cabarga’s art, it is not bad. It looks like Betty.
Boop-Boop-Be-Doop ♥ 