Betty Boop Coffee Mugs

What's better than morning coffee? Morning coffee in a Betty Boop mug...

I love coffee. I always have since High School. In fact, I had my first serving in the 2nd grade. Back then I used to use a lot of Sweet'N Low and non-dairy creamer, which just sounds unappetizing now, but today I mostly take it with a small amount of milk and no sweetener. Sometimes, I'll add a little half n half, or if the mood strikes me, black is just fine too.

I frequently use the red Betty mug in the morning, because it holds nearly four standard servings. Yes, that is what you call 'a cup of Joe.' I received it around Christmas time, and I've been trying to keep it clean, but the brown coffee stains are starting to inevitably appear on the interior. Bummer...

The travel mug is super cool, but I refrained from taking it to work because of the risque image of Betty, paying homage to her pre-code days, flashing her underskirt. It probably qualifies as NSFW in its own way. It has an unfortunate design flaw that I noticed when I first washed it, where water leaks in at the top through the connection between the transparent plastic exterior and the black rim, which damaged the underlying design. Double bummer...

Something interesting involving Betty Boop and coffee happened to me on Monday morning, before work. I was in line at the Starbucks drive-through, and when I pulled up to the window, the employee handed me my cafe latte and a receipt and said, "the driver in front of you paid for your coffee because you like Betty Boop." It took a while for me to comprehend; I just kept holding out my debit card, not knowing what she was talking about. I wasn't paying attention to the driver in front of me, so I have no idea who they were, but in the off chance they might read this: thank you! That was kind of you and it did make my day. I guess my Betty Boop license plate is cooler than I thought. ;)    

Minnie the Moocher (1932)

Minnie the Moocher, probably the most recognized Betty Boop cartoon episode, and for good reason, is a cool, jazzy experience with supernatural, surreal animation sequences involving ghosts, skeleton cats, and a rotoscoped dancing, scat singing, spectral walrus voiced by Cab Calloway. The technical ingenuity and macabre creativity combined with the jazz music makes this Talkartoons animation short an all time cartoon classic.

This was the first of three cartoons with Betty Boop to feature Calloway, the other two being Snow White (1933) and The Old Man of the Mountain (1933). It is also noted for containing the earliest filmed footage of Calloway, where he can be seen with his band dancing and doing what has been referred to as a proto-moonwalk.

Having Betty runaway from home with Bimbo after fighting with her parents does deliver a never-runaway-from-home message, with the creepy show in the cave being a kind of scare lesson that drives Betty and Bimbo back to home-sweet-home (I first got a similar lesson from Fleischer Studios as a kid with the short cartoon Small Fry (1939)).

It's Betty Boop's story, but the main focus and attraction is the haunted cave and the showy phantasmagoria that transpires within. For anyone checking out Betty's cartoons for the first time, Minnie the Moocher is no doubt the perfect episode to start with.  

Bimbo's Initiation (1931)

Released July 24th, 1931, Bimbo's Initiation is an early animated short film from the Talkartoons series of cartoons, which starred Betty's love interest Bimbo the dog, before Betty had her own cartoon. The cartoon features Bimbo finding himself being menaced by an occult secret society, putting him through a series of frightening fun-house gag situations, occasionally breaking off to ask Bimbo in song: "wanna be a member? wanna be a member?" to which Bimbo continually replies with a firm rejection, that is until Betty appears and her dancing hips seem to hold more sway.

These were some enthralling times in the pre-code era, with one of the weirdest and darkest Fleischer cartoons I can recall (next to Minnie the Moocher), and Betty, although still a dog anthropomorph at this time in her career, is risque as ever. The 3D environments giving dynamic to Bimbo's nightmarish journey through the fun-house are amazing even for today. This is one of my favorites. Be sure to watch for a clever Mickey Mouse cameo.

Although Betty is the secondary character here, she makes quite an impression. Towards the end when she starts to dance for Bimbo, I couldn't help sensing some sort of proto-twerking, or at the very least an early instance of booty-shaking for seductive and/or titillation purposes (this wasn't a thing until the '90s, people).    

A Small Comic-Con Load

The amount of Betty Boop merchandise I came across at the Comic-Con last weekend in Albuquerque was very little, my purchases consisting of three cute little inexpensive items: a Betty Boop million dollar novelty bill, a pink ice cream button pin, and a Betty Wizard of Oz themed sticker, which got me a little excited since I've been hooked on L. Frank Baum's colorful Oz books; I'm coming up on Rinkitink of Oz. It's too bad there wasn't a Betty Wizard of Oz cartoon adaptation (at least I don't think there was), as Betty did get the Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and Cinderella treatments. Early on at the convention, I came across a Biker Betty Boop magnet, but not being a biker, I thought I'd hold off and possibly pick it up later, but I ended up not returning to the particular booth. I was kind of hoping to get a picture with a Betty Boop cosplay model but no such luck (I was hoping for Vampirella too). It's not that surprising that Betty Boop would not be a big thing at a comic-con, as she has not appeared in comics in a long time. The only ones I know about were comic-strips, drawn by Bud Counihan, originally printed in the newspaper back in the 1930s, which have recently been consolidated and reprinted by Titan Comics in The Definitive Betty Boop: The Classic Comic Strip Collection graphic novel (more on that in a future post). Dynamite Comics recently dropped an intriguing hint about Betty returning to comics.

From left to right: my dear friend Amanda, Samantha (Jem) Newark , and me.

A couple other awesome finds at the convention that were a bit more pricey was the second issue of Sabrina the Teenage Witch from 1972 (I'm a big Archie Comics fan) and the 6th issue of Katy Keene from 1959 (thanks to those giallo films I gush about at my other blog, I've developed a thing for vintage glamour). I also got to meet Samantha Newark, the original voice of Jem, from a cartoon series I ended up liking more as an adult than as a kid (thank you, Amanda); I really do like the new Jem and the Holograms comic series from IDW, and, believe it or not, I kind of liked the live-action movie.

Betty Boop Rubbish Bin

I didn't think much of it at the time, but I'm a little bummed out that I passed on buying this two sided Betty Boop garbage can. Oh well, at least I took pictures. It has a little bit of a retro charm to it, but I'm not sure how old it really is. I think it would make a classy piece of decor in a bar or in a bathroom. Note the Boop-Boop-A-Doop at the bottom, which is spelled out with two Boops instead of the more common Boop-Oop-A-Doop.

Betty in Blunderland (1934)

Watching Fleischer Studios' take on Wonderland, Betty in Blunderland, with their very own Betty Boop substituting Alice, is a nice way for Betty and Wonderland fans to get a quick fix. The cartoon aptly references numerous events and characters from both of Lewis Carroll's AIW books. Along with the obligatory animation hijinks sequences, Betty sings and dances for many well known Wonderland denizens. And I swear, in this particular cartoon, I think Betty intentionally pronounces her iconic scat line as "Poop-oop-pee-do poop!" Eventually a conflict arises in the form of the Jabberwocky snatching up Betty, prompting a chase scene that leads up to a cute, harmless ending. It's a charming animated interpretation, although it's not quite Jan Svankmajer's Alice / Neco Z Alenky (1988), and should not be missed by either Betty Boop or Alice in Wonderland fans.

Betty Boop Christmas Ornaments

It's Christmas time again, and this year, partially thanks to this blog, I was inspired to decorate our tree with a couple Betty Boop ornaments. There were so many to choose from online, but I went with the 'Santa suit' and 'black dress' Betty ornaments (seen below) from Kurt S. Adler, mainly because I thought the black dress was cool and because they were sold as a set on Amazon. The Black Dress Betty has a bit of a bling to it from glitter coating the jewelry and silver regions of the dress, and those red shoes on Santa Betty are just adorable.

So I figured I'd stop after the first two ornaments, but, while Christmas shopping at the mall, I came across a section inside of a Hallmark store that featured glittery, colorful resin Betty Boop ornaments (pictured below) from Westland Giftware that were too irresistible to not buy a couple.

I once read about a 1931 Christmas card from Fleischer Studios, drawn by Willard Bowsky, that shows Betty Boop supposedly in bed with Santa Claus. Well it wasn't that difficult to find, as it is featured on the Fleischer Studios website. At first glance, it might appear that Betty is about to retire on Christmas Eve, giving a goodnight wink, with her winter boots and festive apparel neatly folded, but the parked reindeer outside allows the imagination to run wild... Oh Dear, Santa! What would Mrs. Claus think?

Image Source: Fleischer Studios Incorporated