Why the Betty Boop Cartoons Were CENSORED in 1934 

I was born in '46 and I agree with you. The allure of BB was mild compared to the 1970's.

It was because the cartoon was actually for adults, Not kids.

@@is4bella._.21 I must have been an "adult kid" then.

uh i was born in the 2000s

am i young or smth

My Mom loved her.

That seemed to be the case with just about every animation studio back in the '20s to early '30s . Some kind of obssession with the occult. There's the classic Dance of the Skeletons in 1929 by Walt Disney

They also used the Rotoscope which gave the Fleisher cartoon their natural like movements. Something the Disney and other animators couldn't imitate.

Betty Boop doing"St.James Infirmary" with Cab Callaway is still a classic cartoon... my favorite!

@@geraldwilliams1080 thanks for letting me know. I gotta check it out.

Like "Red Hot Mamma" where demons are dancing around her.

And I wouldn't be surprised if her and Cab Calloway had something to do with the Hayes act applied to her

She messed around with a bloke named Smoky She loved him though he was cokey He took her down to Chinatown And he showed her how to kick the gong around 🎶 Hidee hidee hidee hi Whoah Hee dee hee dee hee dee hee A hidee hidee hidee ho 😂😂😂 Of course, those are some of the lyrics to minnie the moocher. Haha.

I've heard that Ha! Ha! Ha! was banned for drug use (Koko climbs out of the inkwell, needs dental work, so Betty gives him Laughing Gas, which gets away and affects everybody and everything, very surreal!), but I remember seeing it on an afternoon cartoon show on TV in the 1950s. Also other early Betty Boops.

🗿

yes, and also Tex Avery cartoons, I was such a fan that I even named my son Tex....and i'm from Belgium ! 😃

The actress, Mae Questel, also played Aunt Bethany in Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase.

In alot of pop eye cartoons Betty boop was black later she was changed to White.

That the same voice actress should have done Betty Boop and Olive Oyl should not be any surprise. Voice actors often did lots of different cartoon characters. For example, June Foray did Rocky the Flying Squirrell, Hoppity Hooper, Nell Fenwick, Natasha Fatale, and just about any other female or child character in Rocky and Bullwinkle, Hoppity Hooper, and all the associated cartoons from Jay Ward. Also worked on animations of Dr Seuss, The Smurfs, Stan Freberg commercials, Disney, and and and... Started working in cartoons and radio in the 1930s. And, occasionally did live action movies and TV.

@@lawrencewheeler7837 no. I’ve seen them all. She did black up in ‘bamboo isle’, a BB cartoon.

@@lawrencewheeler7837 Actually she was an animal character who became human.

Sweeeet!

Please post them if you still have them!

I agree

I think it's because she was more of a "cute-sexy".

@@fnjesusfreak Betty Boop is definitely CUTE-SEXY. 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

@@fnjesusfreak Yes, an 'innocent' sexy! She WASN'T for want of a better word, 'slutty'!

I figured out how to alter a TV set's horizontal oscillator circuit in order to decode scrambled porn without a decoder box.

The main job qualification of a censor is that you must have a very DIRTY mind and believe everyone else does, too. These are people who would ban all ink blots and cloud formations for the filth they see there.

Mae West had about the same problems, at the same time, with the same result that she wasn't as much fun when portrayed more restrained...

worse yet lucy and dizze seperate beds

Those who screech about morality should be the first investigated.

Investigate those that preach "Think of the children" first.

Same here. I watched those reruns whenever they were on.

Me too! When I was five I loved to watch Betty Boop, Popeye, Felix the Cat and Bimbo cartoons. And of course Whimpy who always said " I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." He was what made McDonalds rise to fame because we grew up with Whimpy.

Betty Boop actually evolved, starting out as anthroposophical human/puppy until her floppy ears were replaced by earrings and her black nose was replaced by an upturned nose.

@@michaelmckenna6464 She went from creepy to slightly less, but still creepy looking. 😆 The head shape combined with the disproportionate placement of the other features didn't really look good then and still doesn't now. It invokes feelings of tripping balls and to have that face on a relatively normal looking body is basically just grotesque.

Popeye started out even earlier as a minor character who first appeared in Segar’s Thimble Theater comic strip in 1929, ten years after the comic strip started. but his popularity took off until he became the main character and the first cartoon was in 1933.

🏍️ Who ate your brother ?

LATE... sorry, I'm legally blind and sometimes don't pick up on the mistrakes I make.

You said it!

Absofuckinlutely

Does she closely resemble Betty Boop ?

Excellent point I never noticed that point of view before.

You're right. Even the few urban shows that existed in the 1950s (e.g. "The Goldbergs") more or less sanitized the world. Although the gritty quality of the Kramden apartment appalled me even as a child.

I reviewed many of the comments on Betty boop I was the only one who noticed when Betty was on pop eye she was and is black when she's on her own changed white.

@@lawrencewheeler7837 I have to imagine that was supposed to be a tropical tan.

Actually in the early Betty Boops she was a DOG. She morhed to human. The dark skinned one I remember she was an islander doing the hula in a grass skirt

great insight, thanks!

On the other hand, she finally gets lei'd.

I did notice that they darkened her complexion. 👀

The Tahitian dance is the tamure, not hula.

@@scotpens I know (I lived in Tahiti for awhile, back in 1973, and I once won a very minor dance competition in Kauai). But for purposes of discussing Betty's movements, I said "hula" for those unfamiliar with the difference. I suppose I could have elaborated more. I remember one dancer who could reverse her fa'arapa. You can find some of that on youtube. Hugely impressive control.

1st FURRY icon?

And in a reversal of that, Bosko and Honey - the first Warner Bros. cartoon stars - would end up being redesigned as dog-like creatures in their Tiny Toon Adventures appearance. Which would, in turn, influence the look (if indirectly) of Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner in Animaniacs. 😉

The Motion Picture Production Code -- the so-called "Hays Code" -- was actually written in 1930, but the industry didn't start seriously enforcing it until about halfway through 1934.

Where in South Dakota? I have lived in Pierre (Pier) Since January 1, 2001.

More erasing of history it seems. A lot of cartoons that reflected the times they were made in have been ruined by cuts of scenes, cuts of certain words, or entirely not even available, all being deemed racist or something else just as dumb. THEY ARE CARTOONS. Sad. Very sad.

You said it.

I remember those Felix cartoons from when I was a child. We kids didn't understand what a Master Cylinder was or a Solenoid Robot. You can find some of them on YT. They're pretty lame, looking at them now. But Popeye is timeless.

That was "Grampy."

That was Grampy.

"even the cartoons were more interesting/entertaining pre-code" Just like before MAGA ? Just saying ! : )

@@travelertime4382 WTF are you on about??

​@@travelertime4382 Just like before woke.

I asked my mom (who was born in 1935) what was "wrong" with Betty Boop? My mom said "she's just a party girl".

@@Starsk25 Guessing the party girl thing is more better then a traveling prostitute or any other sex based name for that matter?

I remember that one, too!

Early days of the American Taliban...

Max Fleischer obviously hated the censors and dedicated himself to trying to slip a frame or two under their noses. While playing one cartoon frame by frame, there were single frames where Betty’s cleavage was clearly illustrated. But these frames passed by faster than a blink.

@@michaelmckenna6464 All of the animation houses hated the Hays office and took great delight in "slipping one past them". All references to spitting and vomiting were banned, so in one western themed Warners cartoon, the town was named "Rising Gorge",A Shakespearian reference to throwing up. The writers with MGM used to submit scripts with a dozen completely over-the- top jokes, so by the time the censors got to the joke the writers REALLY wanted, they felt guilty, and let it pass because it wasn't as bad as the others. All the major animation houses made direct "fourth wall"jokes about the Hays office, and the obvious jokes that the censors wouldn't allow. Not surprisingly, the ONLY animation house that didn't chafe under the yoke of censorship was Disney, and themselves became a joke usable by other animation houses who frequently "re-interpreted" Disney shorts with a more mature spin.

There was a frame, which was paid homage to in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where a knickerless naked vulva shows for a moment. Just a little upstroke of the cartoonist's pen. The car crash into a lamp post in Toontown. It is on the Laserdisc..

@@SLINGSHOTWORLDTV I know the scene, Had they painted panties on Jessica rabbit, instead of the flesh, toned shadow then the image would have "popped" instantly drawing the eye of the viewer Instead they basically "Barbie-dolled" her, and left it in shadow, that's why so few people are aware of the scene. If they wanted people to "see" it [that is, be consciously aware of it], then they would have given her black, or white panties, or a bikini bottom matching her gown. I taught myself traditional 2D cell animation as a hobby in my youth, so I examined Hundreds of cartoons frame by frame to see how the masters were doing what they did. Some things like the Jessica Rabbit shot were simply necessities for the scene [ Remember, In traditional animation there is story-boarding, and three stages of cell creation BEFORE the individual cells reach ink and paint, and every stage is scrutinized by the director, the animation director, AND the chief animator. "Slipping In" a scene was always a cooperative effort to get something past the censors, "Roger Rabbit" didn't have censors to worry about, THEY had the Disney Corporate structure overseeing their content, and the director, Director of animation, and Chief animator are very much a part of that structure, and it's THEIR jobs on the line if they try to sneak something like this in deliberately. They always had the option of altering Jessica's flight path during principle animation, before it made it to the assistant animator, the in-betweener, or the inker, but they went with this option. It fell to the colourist to recognize the problem [up to this point everything is a black and white line drawing] and find a fix. They did the best with what the scene offered. Flash animation commonly used today, entire scenes are created and coloured BEFORE the actual animation is carried out, and everything can be done with a single person at a keyboard. Now the nude woman in the window during the city fly-by scene in "The Rescuers", THAT was something that got sneaked in, and it was done by probably in the Camera stage, because it was too large to not be noticed when the Background artist's work was being cleared by the director. The audience sees it roaring bast at 80 miles per hour, everyone behind the scenes sees a static painting that remains unmoving the whole time.

I do agree with that but i have seen Betty Boop on RU-vid i never seen her on tv i do love her voice but i do like to see her on tv

@tony borelli It means its my personal opinion and view point.

She's not the only influence. There is a lot more than people are claiming.

I heard about Baby Esther a few years ago and sent her Wikipedia article to several friends. Apparently, Helen Kane and one if the Fleischer brothers went to see Esther perform in a Harlem nightclub doing her song and dance act where she sang 'boop oop a doop' and Ms. Kane and the Fleischer bros. stole her act without Esther's permission nor gave her any credit or residual pay.

Betty Boop was a caricature of Helen Kane, who copied the scat singing she heard from child performer, "Baby" Esther Jones, who in turn was imitating others such as Gertrude Saunders. Many were doing this sort of thing. But where Helen Kane went wrong was in claiming that she originated it. It was proven that she did not. Neither did Esther Jones for that matter. But the sound film of her demonstrated that Miss Kane was not unique. THAT in a nutshell is the true story.

@@kingpong61 "The Fleischer Brothers?" Which ones? Lou Fleischer was a big fan of Jazz and frequented the Cotton Club. I knew him late in life. He was a man of high principles and had no knowledge of Esther Jones until the lawsuit came up. At the same time, I have been associated with the research on this story for several decades. It has only been within the last four or five years that the complete details about Esther Jones have come to surface, proving first of all that she was a Child Performer, not an adult woman as had been falsely circulated on RU-vid and elsewhere on the Internet. The only indication of Esther being a child was the free use in the NY TIMES article referring to "Black Girl," "Baby Esther Jones, etc. The Fleischers were not aware of her since Esther performed in smaller arenas such as The Everglades Club in Manhattan. She never appeared at The Cotton Club, as many have claimed. The creation of Betty Boop was the result of what was originally intended as a one-shot cameo caricature based on Helen Kane in the 1930 cartoon, DIZZY DISHES. The reaction to this character in the New York preview was so sensational that Paramount encouraged the continued development of this character. The complication was that as this deliberate caricature of Helen Kane came about as Paramount severed its contract with her at the time of its bankruptcy reorganization in 1930. Since there were various forms of this type of scat singing, it was difficult to place any individual as the originator. However, the history seems to go back to women like Gertrude Saunders in 1920. Esther Jones was a Child Performer who was trained for an act and encouraged to imitate the likes of Miss Saunders, who was know for this type of singing. It was when Helen Kane saw Esther's act on two occasions that she did the same and rose to fame as "The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Girl, as coined by the Press. When the Betty Boop cartoons started as a formal series in 1932, she filed her lawsuit claiming that the cartoons were unfair competition and had stolen her audience. But by being a public figure, she had no exclusivity to her image. At the same time, her form of singing was not unique to her either, as proven in the court case. Another detail to consider is the personality that Helen Kane displayed compared to Betty Boop. First, Helen Kane came late in the 1920s when the Flapper Era was on the way out. Betty Boop has been compared to the 20s flapper but looked nothing at all like the "Flapper" in her attire. She was more of a representation of the "Jazz Baby" concept in her bathing suit/negligee costume, which Helen Kane never wore. Also, Betty's hair style with the spit curls was short and plastered down to her head, where Helen Kane's hair was "feathered." So this claim of copying her hair style was also false. But most of all, she was not the originator of "Boop-Oop-A-Doop," as the case proved. But then Esther Jones was not the originator, either as explained above.

I always thought of actress Joan Blondel as a live action Betty Boop.

Oh THAT"S where I saw them ! : )

Nermal from "Garfield And Friends"

When I was a small child back in the mid 60s, one of the local TV stations used to show these Fleischer cartoons as part of their kids programing. Compared to the Warner Bros cartoons or those made by MGM, which were the more normal Saturday morning fare and which were full color, they seemed archaic. But, their weirdness wasn't lost on me even then and I found them quite enjoyable.

Yeh...I watched all those. Remember Herman the mouse and Mighty Mouse cartoons?

I read about it in one of Betty Boop's websites. It was September 1938 , Max Fleischer showed a Betty Boop cartoon titled WELCOME TO MIAMI. The cartoon was first shown to the artists & animators of Fleischer Studios. To put it mildly , Betty Boop & Popeye the Sailor were making wild Whoopie. To this day no one knows what happened to the cartoon.🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

@@davidwesley2525 It's locked in a secret room with the Jeffrey Epstein cell tapes!

@@davidwesley2525 They probably destroyed it to avoid backlash

All of Betty being considered hot is really gross when you think about how she has a baby face and talks like a kid, but shes actually 16. Look up Betty boop age

Women I mean, I couldn't give a crap about men

Love this comment!

my father was raised during the great depredation he enjoyed such movies as Shirley Temple Don knots plus trail of the lonesome pine plus John Wayne movies plus the Andy Griffith Show plus little house on the prairie series plus movies plus the Beverly hills Billy's the three stooges plus I watched reruns of Betty Boop way back when when I use to play mafia 1 and 2 I'm into classic cars I saw an easter egg in mafia 2 near one of gas stations don't know if it's Maryland Maro on the billboard sign near little Italy .

Glad you enjoyed it

You will be surprised, when you watch german 1940 movie ,Der Postmeister' or german 1943 movie ,Münchhausen'. No Hayes Code, but topless women.

@@brittakriep2938 I remember German TV and ad posters in malls were much less.....prudish, than here in USA when I was sent there back in fall of '79.

@@varanid9 : I am Brittas boyfriend, only co -using her computer for You Tube. Was born in 1965. Yes, in 1970s german TV show Musikladen showed sexy Gogos, Comedy Show Klimbim, and, when i was 16, the ,young people summer love" comedies in cinema, topless women in ,FA' showergel comercials...., an also in Germany long bygone era. The ,moralist' switch came in late 90s. Also ,nudist bathing' ( known as FKK, much funnier than KKK) is in decline. Also in a lot of spa (??) buildings/ Thermalbad, there are some nudist parts, mostly the socalled ,Sauna' part. In last may be two years it started, that some of this Spa/ Thermalbad buildings restrict being nude, where it was for decades common. This phenomeon is here and there, but i think, also in this context, times become lesser liberal. And , few decades ago impossibe, even art museums start to be strange, when there is a centuries old painting of a nude woman. As US citizen, you perhaps know such things for years, but here? I must use Queen Elisabeth ll ' s famous words , she said a number of years ago: I am not amused!

Yeah , Jane was really skinny-dipping !

@@lennyking1899 : As i noted, i am german in my mid 50s. In early 1950s ( 51/52?) a german movie was produced, for two or three seconds, you can see a painter and a nude woman, for current standarts : Nothing. A number of years ago, i somewhere saw a picture, assumingly from wwll. A soldier with Stahlhelm and a long baton standing before civilians. But not a wwll picture, a Westgerman riotpoliceman in front of a cinema, which showed the noted movie.

Yeah, I forget this until somebody does some presentation as to why they did have to tone down and censor old after 1934 Betty Boop due to the Hays code or something about Betty Boop and her entire changes over the span of the 90+ years she has been around mentions the pre Hays code with Betty Boop. Betty Boop as a modern Adult Cartoon with Betty Boop as an adult character if not going too far but in similar style to Betty Boop pre 1934, again adult character but just a tick further would do very well in this day and age, provided it did not get cut due to its unpopularity as a TV/Streaming show. You could do the two 7--10 minute episodes for TV like kids shows or do a 10 to 15 minute episode each if streaming it on TV for this day and age for the cartoon. I know that a show on USA Comedy Central had a Betty Boop like character in the Drawn Together TV show most being based off characters from TV shows or dead classic Cartoons with (looking up her name) Toot Braunstein. Drawn Together however during early Season 3 got too adult for most to keep watching including me then in early season 4 became too adult for TV it got yanked off the air by the FCC. This is saying something for TV when Shows like the Squidbillies or Metalapocalypse from Adult Swim was on the air at same time with just as bad a show if not worse in Squidbillies caset I have never watched Squidbillies but have only seen clips used for Commercials on Adult Swim that make Squidbillies seem like a worse show then Drawn Together.

Is that what kids should see? Television that's "sexy?"

Fun fact: “ I Heard” is a song about a rumor of the spread of venereal disease (VD). Read the lyrics.

*I Post!! I Get => ReTurned ERRor

a post "down" from yours gives credit to Esther Lee Jones.

Because it's about Betty Boop , not about Betty Boop stealing an act.

@@lennyking1899SMH! I see why this country is behind. Public school churning out stupidity. Did you watch the presentation? If it is SO much about Betty Boop, then why bring up the Kane suit? Didn't the presenter of this piece of so called history bring up the Helen Kane case? He did? I didn't! I only commented. Did you comprehend MY comment? Don't respond; I know the answer. ©2022

I agree what a hot babe I love Betty eternally

I agree what a hot babe I love Betty eternally

YOU SAID IT!