Betty Boop Calendars

This year, 2015, has been a delight with Betty Boop as my calendar girl, and fortunately the same calendar kiosk at the mall had a new one, so it looks like 2016 will be the year of Betty again. Well, not just for me; maybe the new Betty Boop movie that Simon Cowell is making will come out sometime next year.

The 2016 calendar has an interesting iTunes theme called iBoop: Betty's-Playlist (ACCO Brands) with each month depicting a different music genre with coinciding Betty artwork that's presented in the form of a play-screen. The 2015 calendar (also from ACCO Brands) has a consistent sunny surfs-up-Betty theme that's been a pleasant wall decorator. Some of the months feature an image of Betty riding a wave, which conflicts a little with the 1934 classic Fleischer Studio cartoon Betty Boop's Lifeguard, where Betty is enjoying the beach and it is established that she can't swim, a likely plot excuse so she can be saved by the hunky lifeguard, Freddy, when she inevitably loses her rubber horsey flotation. Before she is rescued, Betty has a fever dream where she is a mermaid, portrayed in that silly, musical, surreal animation style that the Fleischer brothers excelled at.

From Betty Boop's Lifeguard (1934)