The Marvelous Betty Boop

Betty Boop - The Mother of Cartoon Cheesecake

The actress, Clara Bow was a famous sex symbol in film's early days, embodying Betty Boop's sexuality and style.

Based on the over-exaggerated adorably cartoonish voice and looks of 1920 scat singer Helen Kale, (the hillbilly kitten) who created the boop-poo-pidoo-poo line in the hit song, later covered by Marilyn Monroe, "I Want to Be Loved by You". Betty Boop exploded onto the scene at the end of 1930. Wikipedia says:

"Betty Boop is important to animation history for being the first cartoon character to fully represent a sexual woman. Other female cartoon characters of the same period showed their panties regularly, like Minnie Mouse, but were not fully defined in a woman's form. All other cartoon "girls" were merely clones of their male co-stars, with alterations in costume with the addition of eyelashes and a female voice. Betty Boop wore short dresses, high heels, and a garter belt. Her breasts were suggested with a low, contoured bodice that showed cleavage. In her cartoons, male characters tried to sneak peeks at her while she's changing, or simply walking along minding her own business."

Later, Comic book characters would notoriously be drawn with exaggerated figures, appealing to adolescents and grown men alike- most recently "Jessica Rabbit" turned heads and no doubt the female form in cartoon will continue to do so.

Designed by Max Fleisher for Paramount Studio's, she sang and danced in more than 100 cartoons.Mae Questal, who was the voice behind Olive Oyl, was also Betty's!