Betty Boop (in a reprised voice role by Mae Questel) has a couple of brief appearances in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the most memorable being when she meets up with Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) while she's working in a noirish 1940s nightclub selling cigars and cigarettes; as she puts it, "work's been kinda slow since cartoons went to color." Both Betty and Eddie are presented like has-beens suffering financially in their current economic climate, which is quite poignant considering that Betty had her own hugely successful long running show the decade prior. Eddie and Betty seem well acquainted with one another. It isn't addressed, but it's interesting to wonder what kind of past Eddie and Betty might've had together, especially considering that Eddie has a prejudice contempt for "toons," since one apparently killed his brother by dropping a piano on his head, but he's still quite friendly with Betty, nonetheless. Are they close old friends or did they perhaps have a past fling? Er... Could humans have flings with toons?
I didn't notice until The Nostalgia Critic brought it up in the What You Never Knew About Roger Rabbit episode, but Betty also makes a quick, easy-to-miss, Easter egg appearance in the film as a doll decorating Eddie's workstation. Looking at it, you can see that the Betty doll is on Eddie's deceased brother Theodore's side of the desk, its dustiness revealing that Eddie left his brother's workstation untouched. From this, I would guess that Theodore was quite the Betty Boop fan. Perhaps he and Betty were old friends as well.
The doll on the desk is a Vintage Betty Boop Jointed Porcelain Doll, a rare Betty Boop collectible from the 1930s. I really, really want one.
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| From Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) |
