According to Paramount Betty Boop’s risqué persona was based on Clara Gordon Bow. Betty’s voice and singing style was loosely based on Mae Questel, including the baby-talk epidemic.
Bow was known as the “It” girl because she had it, and was the original jazz-baby.
The original Betty was deemed ugly so the creators desired a more attractive, thin Betty. Thus, in order to build this character, they turned to Bow as well as other vintage stars like Greta Garbo to use as sources. Betty has admitted herself in promos that she’s the new “Garbo”.
Bow in real life suffered from schizophrenia and mental illness.
Her illness was brought on by trauma and or inherited by her mother Sarah Gordon Bow. Bow was used and abused by the entertainment industry which also likely contributed to her demise and mental state.
The price of Hollywood is selling your soul and dignity for fortune and fame. Most stars in history become idols and are idolized but that doesn’t bring true happiness.
Many stars often die young. If not, they get distorted from reality or despondent until their death. Many stars experience trauma as a result of selling sex or having been used and abused.
You don’t just become a star overnight you have to sleep your way to the top or do Hollywood rituals. Women in Hollywood have it the worst. If you see a woman being awarded a trophy and beaming, remember that she had to work hard by selling sex or having sex with producers and directors to get to where she is.
The same applies to most men too but they often have to do same-sex rituals. Men being demeaned in Hollywood is not the same because they are likely the ringleaders. Their major purpose is to pimp out as many female stars as possible.
The same happened with the great Marilyn Monroe and Darryl Zanuck. Zanuck really took advantage of Monroe, and is no different for any woman who is headlining or popular.
As a woman, you will attain wealth and stardom while losing your self-worth and becoming a dirty whore. A lot of these starlets with great reputations in Hollywood history have died whores. It is a sad story, but that’s the price of fame.
However, not everyone is willing to sell their soul, and you have the right to refuse. If a “Jew producer or director” forces himself on a starlet by force, then she is not at fault. That is why you have to be cautious of men. #MeToo
Though today in Hollywood there are probably women who are just like the men if not worse.
Bow was also over-sexualized much like the Fleischer Studios cartoon character Betty Boop. It was more or less to promote immorality to general audiences.
Over-sexualization worked up until the Hays Code kicked in. Speaking of Hollywood’s Hays Code it was eventually banned. 2024 could do with a new Hollywood Hays Code. Has anyone seen what garbage ideologies that Hollywood is currently pushing?
Humiliation rituals, occultism, taboo and other agendas are among the list. Who wants to watch that on TV or at the movies!?
There’s nothing wrong in being or feeling sexy as long as people or their emotions are not being harmed.
When substances such as cocaine or other hardcore drugs are used to control others, it indicates that potential victims in Hollywood are not in good mental health.
A lot of what Hollywood would consider “Z” listers also like to snort a like coke every now and then. Z-list are known individuals who get work here and there but more or less not A-list.
But not everyone is a junky. You can tell the junkies as they act irrational or crazy. Remember that racist woman who looks like a scarecrow!? She clearly is a junky.
Well let me tell you, she’s just mad because most normal people are not junkies like she is.
Bow retired in 1933. Like Desirée Goyette the voice of Betty Boop once said, “Betty Boop was modeled after Clara Bow, so if you want to know more about who Betty Boop was, you need to know a lot more about who Clara Bow was. And so as the voice of Betty Boop I did my best Clara Bow imitation.”
If you want to get to know Clara Bow, you can watch her vintage Paramount Pictures films. And for a Betty Boop comparison, watch Betty Boop in “Hollywood on Parade” by Paramount Pictures.
The model who went viral in those cosplay photos is a famous model in Russia and Ukraine. She doesn’t care about her Betty Boop photos and does not associate herself with them.
Certain parts of Oyla’s body had been enhanced by Photoshop editing including her face and hair. Her real body does not look like that. She kind of did a Kim Kardashian, and so her body had been edited, especially her chest area.
Now you know why the body in these photos look so fake. If you look carefully at the dress and some parts of the photos you can see the Photoshop edits.
Oyla fits the “Boop-Boop-Be-Doop” profile as in real life, she has black hair and blue eyes like Boop.
Did you know that blue-eyed rivals Mae Questel and Little Ann Little who were two of the original voices of Betty Boop were also of Russian descent!? Questel was Russian-Polish and American, and Little was Russian-American, and they both were redheads.
Little’s hair was more orange but Questel’s hair color however was a more reddish-brown. Keep in mind that all the women who voiced Betty often dyed their hair too.
A majority of them became blondes. Redhead Little also dyed her hair black at one point. Questel obviously dyed her hair more than once but later in life she let it go gray.
Yes, the original Betty Boop was redheaded. Grim Natwick created his original dog-Betty with red hair. The Fleischers eventually embraced Betty’s red hair in “Poor Cinderella”.
But it didn’t stay long because they later got rid of it. Everyone knows that Betty looks better with black hair.
And so the original Betty Boop girls who voiced Betty in the cartoons had Russian roots. A lot of Russians love Betty Boop and are fans of the character.
Oyla fabricates her age so she pretends to be younger than she really is which is what most models and actresses do. She has knocked 10 years off of her age.
She claims to be 20+ but is really 30+ in age. She was allegedly 16, 17, 18 or 19 in her Betty Boop photos taken in 2008. If you do a bit of calculation you can calculate that she would be in her mid to late 30s now.
By looking at her face you can tell she’s older. But she is very small and petite in real life, so that is probably how she has been getting away with pretending to be younger than she really is.
She’s been in the modeling business since she was a child. She is also very ill and suffers from severe illness. One thing you should know is as Betty is that she’s wearing the official Betty Boop garter.
A lot of people mistakenly thought she was a Black woman, or was Baby Esther or Helen Kane and still do.
But she is more or less a model who has a really great resume. So her photos are merely cosplay. She has worked for many famous well-known brands in her homeland. She doesn’t really confirm where she’s from but seems to be very active in Russia.
She is either Ukrainian or Russian. She has not really specified where she’s from as she seems to be quite mysterious.
For those wondering, though suffering from illness, Oyla is alive and she’s doing very well.
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.
In a recent Chicagoan news interview the Fleischer Studios have responded to Boop-related things.
Because Betty made her debut as a Black woman and it created quite a commotion on social media, so the Fleischers feel compelled to reply.
The cartoon character Betty Boop, according to Fleischer Studios, was influenced by culture rather than a specific individual. And a diverse range of individuals, including many Black people, contributed to the formation of the culture.
The Fleischers acknowledge that the majority of “Betty Boop” cartoons, particularly the ones with Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and Don Redman as well as some of the other “Talkartoons” emulate Black culture.
And that Betty Boop, the fictional character, somewhat imitates that.
The Fleischers denied that Kane served as the model for Betty Boop.
Though animator Grim Natwick used Kane’s “fame” to create the initial base for Betty Boop. The Fleischers developed that persona further. Kane was not the only “Booper” in the business.
There were many “Boop Girls” in the late 1920s and early 1930s, being a baby-talk vamp was a popular cult, especially among teenage girls. Natwick also referenced teenage flapper girls as inspiration behind Betty Boop.
Being as Betty’s voices Margie Hines and Mae Questel were “Boop-Boop-Be-Doop” girls? Why wouldn’t Betty be?
Were those “Boops” taken from Helen Kane by the Fleischer brothers, Max and Dave? The courts ruled no. A few years prior, one of Kane’s greatest rivals, Esther Jones, was scatting and, if not exactly “Boop-Boop-a-Dooping”, then at least “Boo-Boo-Boo-Doo-Doo-Doo” and “Wa-Da-Da-ing” all over the place, according to testimony provided by former manager of the artist Lou Bolton during the 1934 trial.
He stated that Bolton coached her.
Additionally, Bolton attested that the night Jones’ New York City nightclub performance was seen by his client Helen Kane, he was there in the crowd. And, in the long and unquestionable tradition of blatant stealing in American show business, it appears that she swiped important parts of it for her own routines.
A detailed discussion is had of Peggy Bernier. Naturally, Bernier titled “The Girl With the Baby Voice” was discovered by Paul Ash before Kane and had been using the baby voice years earlier.
No one, according to the Fleischers, was the inspiration for Boop.
They neglected to note, too, that Boop had a redhead rival. Clara Bow was one of the many clear inspirations behind the character. The Fleischers overlooked Paramount’s admission that Bow was one of their numerous sources of inspiration.
In particular, Boop and Bow were compared to each other in Hollywood on Parade. That amounted to an oblique admission that Bow served as one of Boop’s numerous sources of inspiration.
Mark Fleischer argued that it is a “terrible injustice to Esther Jones because she had her own wonderful career” to suggest that she was the model for Betty Boop. And this false information has overshadowed it.
The Fleischers asserted that Barbie a character created by Mattel needed to correct the record in contrast to Betty Boop and Barbie. And has to sort of own up to its mistakes and acknowledge some things.
“Particularly after the Barbie film, the plot isn’t really original. Barbie’s real-life differences are shown in the Barbie movie in a convincing way.”
The Fleischers are likely responding to this genuine review.
It is true, Barbie shows this is a more convincing way. Compared to the Barbie movie, the Broadway production of Boop! the Musical, which might return as early as April 2024, is quite popular but might not become a cult classic unless they make it more appealing to “everyone” and increase its promotion.
Many individuals have assumed that the musical is exclusively “Black-exclusive”. However, the reality is that Betty in the Broadway show was not intended to be a “Black” person. She was actually penned as a “fictional” individual, and is colorless. In the original concepts for the Broadway, several white women auditioned and won the role. When the musical went into a different direction the original cast were fired.
Betty’s world turns from black and white to color, so there is no color in this Betty’s world. However because a Black woman portrays her, Betty is obviously BLACK.
When people write, falsely, that they wonder why Betty is not a stereotypical Black woman. And often applaud the writing. This is obviously due to Betty’s tale being written with no ethnicity in mind. Though it is relatively known that she debuted as a Black woman. Which gave a “person of color” to take on the new reimagined role, and true “Boopers” don’t care what ethnicity Betty is, as long as they stick to some original source material.
For all the reasons and skill sets that the character of Betty demands, the choice of Jasmine Rogers, a performer of color, feels appropriate to take on the role of Betty Boop.
The Fleischers are probably replying to those who are unaware of the real source.
They are probably making an oblique reference to “certain individuals” who requested a Betty Boop biography be written without permission. With a narrative that the Fleischer Studios do not agree with. The book in question was used to defame the Fleischers. So as of 2023, the story of the Fleischers is that they are currently thieves.
This is what the “book” in question indicates. I have to agree with the Fleischers, the book in likely a little fabricated. So for people to use that as a source to attack the Fleischers is quite blasé. The book in question fabricates the “scat-singing” originations, and claims that Kane was the sole innovator.
Which is false, and a little biased.
This new article proves that the Fleischers are able to defend themselves, but I can’t help think that like most Fleischer articles, it seems to be self-publishing. In other words paid for allegedly out of the Fleischers pockets as they did a few years ago in a Jewish news report. But what the Fleischer Studios need to understand is, there is always two-sides to every story. And that’s only their narrative; there are other people’s unique perspectives as well.
On another note, when a voice-actress for Betty showed disdain towards African Americans. The Fleischers and King Features did not chastise the person in question. Also said person always says that “HELEN KANE” is the model and voice for Betty Boop. So that also discredits the Fleischer Studios.
If “The Official Voice of Betty Boop” is gatekeeping a franchise and stating that Helen Kane was Betty Boop. What does that say about your franchise?
The notion that Betty was based on “no one” does not imply that other individuals share your opinion. Having several perspectives on a tale makes it hard to maintain control over the narrative.
But regardless of the Fleischers personal opinions there’s no hate here.
Citing “no one” as the model or inspiration, however, is likely to backfire because it will pique curiosity and encourage certain individuals to possibly look into the story more.
It does no one any justice to refuse to acknowledge that Helen Kane partially served as a basis for Betty Boop. She served as the base for Dizzy Dishes. The only person who could attest to this was Grim Natwick.
And he did many times. Sadly, Natwick eventually passed away.
Prior to his passing, he did wish for “his” creation Betty Boop to return to him, since Max Fleischer had pledged to do so following Betty’s retirement. However, the Fleischers refused to give Boop back to him. He sued them after Max Fleischer died, but lost. Because he didn’t have anything written in writing. The Fleischers probably kept Betty Boop because her merchandise and the whole franchise is worth over $1,000,000,000 in dollars.
The Chicago story continues by suggesting that Baby Esther ought to have a biopic of her own.
Here’s quote by Betty Boop:
“I mean, first it was this lawsuit with the Kane girl. I’d never even seen her act. My ‘Boop-Oop-a-Dooping’ comes from here. Either you ‘Boop’ from inside or you ain’t got it. It’s not somethin’ you pull on or off like a pair o’ six-inch spike heels.”
Boop-Boop-Be-Doop Statement:
Please note that this “Boop-Boop-Be-Doop” blog has always been 50/50, and doesn’t just do one-sided narratives.
The “Boop-Boop-Be-Doop” blog does believe that Helen Kane was “not” original. She may have made the “Boop-Boop-a-Doop” famous, but she didn’t create it. But keep in mind, that was HER persona. She was best known for that IMAGE. So technically it was her gimmick. Nobody lay claim to it. They always said they were doing “Kane” impersonations.
Star “Baby Esther” also DID NOT lay claim to the “Boop” routine or Kane’s persona. The AFRO-AMERICAN did however, by proclaiming that Kane was a thief.
African-American singers Louis Armstrong and Clarence Williams did, they created the original “Boop” routine. Though everyone else telling the tale? They won’t tell you that though will they? Though during the lawsuit, they did go through the origination of “scat-singing” routines.
Because the Fleischers used the M-G-M soundtrack of Esther Jones, that’s the only reason they were able to demonstrate that Harlem was the initial source behind the scat. Jones eventually got married, settled down. She vanished from the entertainment business and became obscure.
But her tale as said many times, was archived in old news reports. So when people began researching Betty Boop during the 1970s and 1980s, Jones came up in their research. She had been archived in many old news reports. As more or less? Saving the FLEISCHERS butts in court?
Also all the other evidence given, with Kane also “admitting” to not being the “first” baby-voiced singer.
When asked how she had created this “Boop” scatting technique, Kane stated, “It’s a form of rhythm I created. There’s a bar in the music, and at the end there is a stop.”
However interpolating “hot licks” into songs had already been established by other performers long before Kane had started using the technique that she claimed she had invented.
Helen Kane made “Boop-Boop-a-Doop” famous.
But she was not the first “scatter” and she certainly did not “invent” the rhythm of interjecting “meaningless” sounds into songs.
There are some brand new Betty Boop merchandise that have been released as of 2023. In one of the updates, Betty has a brand new hairstyle, which is more modernized, and she has reverted to that of being a redhead.
For those that are unaware, Betty originally was a character that had red hair and blue eyes. They often get her red hair wrong, because it was originally thought that Betty was a platinum blonde.
So when Betty appears in some artworks she has a more lighter red hairstyle.
Her red hair was based on the “It-Girl” the iconic Clara Bow.
After “Poor Cinderella” was restored and deposited at UCLA, they found that Betty’s hair was a more darker reddish-orange. People who are not fans of the series, they are unaware that Betty even had red hair.
Her hair had been established as red since 1931. This a few years before the colorized Fleischer cartoon “Poor Cinderella” was made. A lot of people they don’t know this. Grim Natwick colorized earlier photos of Betty, and even in later photos of Betty, he gave her red hair.
Originally I thought they were copying Cyndi Lauper. Turns out Cyndi Lauper wasn’t even around in 1977.
So when Grim Natwick was sketching Betty Boop with her red hair many years later. He was just telling fans that Betty was originally a redhead.
I wrote an entire article here on the comparison between Bow and Boop. And how Bow inspired the development of the Betty Boop character. It makes sense, because Bow was Paramount’s top star.
Since the original cartoons were only in black and white and lacked color. By looking, one cannot definitively confirm Betty’s red hair. However original Fleischer transcripts and promos by the Fleischers, they confirm that Betty has pale skin, blue eyes. They emphasize on her hour-glass figure and have noted that in color Betty Boop’s hair is red.
The license owners today won’t divulge that Betty ever had red hair. All they will discuss is the history of the color process of Poor Cinderella, this is possibly because they too are unaware of Betty’s true colorized origins. Betty solely has black hair in the main reboots, proving this.
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Betty says she doesn’t get much work since cartoons are now in color, claiming to be colorless. Betty may, on the other hand in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, just be drawn in ink, which is made up of black pen and white paper.
Betty occasionally has black hair in 1930s promos, and a very uncommon red hair color also appears on occasion on “Betty Boop” vintage merchandise.
She has black hair, why? Betty, who resides in the inkwell, has jet-black hair that has been painted with ink. When colored in old official promos and artworks, her hair was red.
At first, Fearless Fred like Arthur Jarrett, had black hair. In more recent incarnations, Fred is either redheaded or strawberry blonde. Again, in the 1988 French animation A Dance For Two, Betty is depicted as a redhead.
Little Ann Little, the voice of Betty Boop who was a redhead, had also confirmed in an old interview that Betty’s original hair color was red.
Someone recently asked me a question regarding Betty Boop’s dress.
(Sketch of Betty Boop in Silly Scandals by Grim Natwick.)
The outfits worn in 1929 by Louise Brooks and Clara Bow were said to have served as the model and or base for Betty’s newer frilly outfit that Betty debuted in the 1931 cartoon Silly Scandals.
Furthermore, Betty Boop’s hair color was influenced by Clara Bow’s hair color. The Fleischers when developing Betty, they didn’t just use “Helen Kane” they used many sources. Clara Bow being in all the Paramount news reports and magazines, would make her top priority.
In addition, there were risqué films featuring Bow and Betty Boop, both of whom were deemed risqué. Many jokes or allusions to risqué content, which is terrible for women. However, it is entertainment industry.
Since 1931, Betty had actually been a redhead. Grim Natwick drew the original Betty Boop with red hair and blue eyes.
But people who are not fans of the series or know very little of Betty’s origins really only saw Betty in black and white since she’s composed of ink. There’s a one-shot colorized “Betty Boop” cartoon called “Poor Cinderella” and that’s where Betty showcases her red hair.
Of course Betty looks better with black hair.
So yeah, people were unaware and still are to this day that Betty already was a redheaded character.
For those that do not know, Bow was honored by the “WAMPAS Baby Stars” campaign by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in 1924.
She inspired many girls and women to want to emulate her. A lot of these other women in the entertainment industry, they did not like Bow, and they did not think highly of Bow. Her being in public was frowned upon by rivals.
Helen Kane and Clara Bow, well they did not see eye-to-eye. Bow had already been established long before Kane was known. So Bow came before Kane.
Please note that Helen Kane was also known for wearing frilly baby-doll dresses with bows and frills, however in comparison the dresses she wore, they were more baggy and were not as sexy. Some of the dresses she wore in her earlier career looked awful.
Of course that gigantic ribbon on the back of Betty’s dress in Dizzy Dishes, obviously that was inspired by Kane’s dress in the 1929 film Pointed Heels, in which she also sported a ribbon on the back of her dress. However Betty had a more strapless dress, and Kane’s was hideously frilly but it looked like something that a baby would wear.
Being as Kane was a protégé of Bow, it would make Bow the originator. Therefore Bow was sort of the model for Betty Boop. The Fleischer Studios actually admitted to this several times throughout the 1930s.
However this was possibly because of the Helen Kane lawsuit. Kane was sort of mildly the base, but so were many other women. And Kane she wasn’t as original as she had claimed to have been.
Betty Boop and Clara Bow?
If you ever saw the 1933 Paramount Pictures live-action film Hollywood on Parade. The main protagonist is looking for a girlfriend, so he asks Rex Bell if he can date the famous Clara Bow.
Bow was obviously married to Bell, so he points in the direction of Max Fleischer’s girl Betty Boop, who in that short was portrayed by Bonnie Poe, who around this time was the age of 17 turning 18. Paramount was basically saying that Betty Boop is just like Clara Bow.
In this short, Betty’s dress seems more silky than frilly.
Poe’s real name was not Bonnie but also Clara.
So there was a Clara Bow and a Clara Poe.
Helen Kane vs. Clara Bow
Paul Ash confirmed in an early interview that Helen “Sugar” Kane was the new Clara Bow at one point. You probably wouldn’t believe this. After making her stage debut in 1928, Kane became incredibly popular in New York; but, by 1931, her stardom had faded. As it happened, Bow who was more well-known retired in 1933.
Unlike Kane, Bow frequently changed her hairstyle and at one point had really long hair. Kane didn’t grow her hair long until the late 1930s. I can see why they were rivals at one point.
And this explains why Kane was not very fond of Bow, as she saw Bow as tough competition. There is a lot of late-1920s and early-1930s gossip that actually validated this. I don’t think Kane hated Bow, but Kane had a little streak of jealousy. And anyone would, Bow was a real beauty.
Bow was the original jazz baby, however much like Madonna, she always reinvented herself. Bow debuted that frilly baby doll style years before Kane.
So ideally people know that Clara Bow had the exact same style as Kane, only Bow was more attractive and thin. This knowledge will be helpful when people see pictures of Kane looking a certain way or with ribbons in her hair.
But Kane, like a lot of other 1920s and 1930s flapper girls, did look like Bow. Given Kane’s plumper appearance, Kane is more easier to identify in vintage photos.
Kane was more or less a chubbier copy-cat, more plump. Kane pushed for the baby-doll style or persona because it differed to Bow. Kane obviously didn’t want to copy Bow to the extent of people catching on that she was trying to emulate Bow earlier on in her career. Thus, these two New Yorkers could be seen as relatively similar to one another.
Both of these vamps appeared in the 1930 film Paramount on Parade by Paramount Pictures. However Kane who had a tremendous following in New York was “furious” over Gloria Swanson’s statement saying that any one with half an eye could see that Clara Bow the “It” girl was the one real beauty among film stars.
So you have the “It Girl” and the “Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl”.
And if you merge the both of them together, you have Betty Boop.
The Fleischers maintained and continue to maintain to this day that “no one” served as the model for Boop. But obviously they’ve tripped up a few times throughout the decades. And I personally won’t stand for lying or lies. In addition, Grim Natwick, who developed the “original” Betty in 1930, revealed the real story behind her creation.
Naturally, the Fleischers continued to develop Betty when Natwick left the studio. And so Betty ended up with the allure of Mae West, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, among other popular female stars of the 1930s.
Betty Boop is a sex-symbol, as was Clara Bow.
Who did Betty go on to emulate when she was rebooted during the 1980s? Another sex-symbol, and that was the famous Marilyn Monroe who become a more relevant icon than Clara Bow.
So there you have it.
In Betty Boop’s debut in 1930, her dress was not as frilly, however in Silly Scandals, Betty’s dress was intensely frilly. You probably can’t see the full preview in the model sheet, however you can in the animated cartoon.
Please look in the gallery below for a comparison.
❤️ Betty Boop has always had red hair and blue eyes and has since 1931. ❤️
She’s alternatively and best known for having black hair.
The red is more in comparison to Clara Bow the It Girl. But when Betty has black hair, it’s more like Helen Kane. Why is Betty’s hair black? Apparently it is because she is made of pen and ink and lives in the inkwell. So when Betty is drawn and brought to life by Max Fleischer, her hair is automatically black.
To be honest Betty having red hair doesn’t suit her much.
If people ever come to realization that Betty was a redhead, they may think she’s one of the many redheaded characters being blackwashed by mainstream media. 🤭
Sorry to say but Betty hasn’t appeared with red hair since Poor Cinderella.
🖤 Helen Kane was the ORIGINAL model for Betty Boop. 🖤
(Note the Fleischer Studios refuse to admit this. But reason being is they adapted the character several times. So Betty in 1932, was more like Mae Questel, the person who voiced Betty. Questel started her imitation career as a Helen Kane impersonator, however unlike Kane, Questel was more talented and could do multiple voices.)
Grim Natwick’s original creation and or prototype of Betty (that featured the voice of Margie Hines) was inspired by Kane but also teenage flapper girls of the late 20s and 30s and of course Clara Bow happened to be one of the latter. Helen Kane originally started her career as Bow’s protégé. However Kane’s sex appeal did not work out in her favor due to her plumpness, and she became more famous for a baby-doll persona. Now this baby-doll persona was not new, and had been used years earlier by a barrage of female performers.
Baby Esther (who’s scat-singing style predated Helen Kane’s) was not the model for Betty Boop. Helen Kane would later sue over this only to lose when it was proven in court that her look, style and gimmick was not original. Baby Esther was one of the many scat singers who used a baby-doll persona was used as evidence in court to prove this. However unlike Helen Kane, African-American singer and dancer Baby Esther at that time was an actual child performer.
Boop-Boop-Be-Doop ♥ 