Betty Boop Film Class Part 3

I'm opening up this Betty Boop Film Class post with someone else's video of Betty Boop's voice. As I mentioned in Film Class 2, the voices in Mysterious Mose and the Bum Bandit (the subject of today's class) are something of a mystery.



(I've edited the gal's YouTube info to eliminate typos and errors)

The Photo is Little Ann Rothschild, I Mixed them up by mistake And the videos are that of Kate Wright as Betty Boop.

Kate Wright Only Did a Few Betty Boop Cartoons [and these appear to be them]. These Cartoons Cannot Be Little Ann because it was Stated That little Ann had Done a Betty Boop Theme, Which She did In Betty Boop's Bizzy Bee. But For Kate Wright's [cartoons], They Had Used Mae Questels Theme of Booping, Meaning that, in Betty Boops Birthday, Kate Wright never Said the Words "Boop oop a doop."

She is Seen in a Little News Reel Booping With the Other Boop oop a Doop girls, With Mae Questel taking the Lead Role, And she Actually said the Word Boop oop a doop, But the others went over her with their Booping, meaning the Rest All had Stronger Voices. (I think this is meaningless, -Aaron)

The Only Cartoon Voices Of betty Boop Which Do not Sound Familiar are Mysterious Mose And the Bum Bandit. Although In The Bum bandit it could Have Been one Of the Main Voices Just using their Original Voices and not making it Sound Babyish.

1933 - Betty Boops Birthday Party/Betty Boops May Party/Betty Boops Big Boss

Margie Hines As Voice Of Betty Boop:

Not much is known About her, But she Was in the Helen Kane Trial So that Means She Must Have Done an Earlier Voice in Betty Boop Cartoons And that Could Only have been Dizzy Dishes 1930. Because I've seen Most of the others from 1931-1935 and None Sounded like Margie Hines.

1930 - Dizzy Dishes As Quoted By [Out of the Inkwell documentary)
1937 - Zula Hula
1938- / Sally Swing/On With The New/ Thrills And Chills
1939- My Friend the Monkey/So Does a Automobile/ Musical Mountaineers/ The Scared Crows/ Rythm on the Reservation

Little Ann Little/Ann Rothschild As Betty Boops Voice, Not much is know About Little Ann, But a Few things Are Ann Rothschild broke into show business in the 1925 "Greenwich Village Follies" and was named "Little Ann Little" because she was only 4'10" tall and weighed 76 pounds. After "Dizzy Dishes 1930" premiered, Paramount, who distributed Fleischer productions, held an audition for a girl to do the voice for the new character. Ann was chosen from among many other girls and provided the voice for a few cartoons before going on the road with a Betty Boop vaudeville act. The act consisted, in part, of a drawing demonstration by Pauline Comanor, a "movie cartoonist" who drew Ann as Betty and handed out the drawings to lucky audience members.

1930 - Barnacle Bill - After Dizzy Dishes The Voice Makes a match, Not Mae Questel, i think mae Questel was one of the Mermaids in the End or margie hines either one,
1931- Mask-A-Raid/Jack and the Beanstalk/Bimbos Exspress/Dizzy Red Riding Hood
1932- - Any Rags?/Boop-oop-a-Doop/Swim or Sink(S.O.S)/ The Dancing Fool/A Hunting We Will Go/Betty Boops Bizzy Bee.
And heres a Few Clips of Little Ann as Betty Boop in a Few Cartoons of betty boop

CresantStar cites this article about her obituary, which is highly inaccurate, saying she recorded Betty Boop cartoons between 1933 and 1945, even though Betty Boop disappeared in 1939. Whoever wrote the obit was an idiot.

Bonnie Poe As Voice For Betty Boop,

As I Had Seen In The Documetry, Also she Did a Few Olive Oyl Voices, Even the one in popeye the sailor and After when mae Questel Had Created The Voice,

Here is Where She Provided the Voices For Betty Boop -
1933 - Mother Goose Land/Popeye the Sailor/Morning noon and Night/ Betty Boops Halloween party/Parade of Wooden Soldiers

1934 - She Wronged Him Right/Red Hot Mamma/Betty In Blunderland/Betty Boops Rise To Fame/Betty Boops Life Guard/ Poor Cinderella - The Last one She Did i cant think of anymore she could have done, But now that im thinking of it Mysterious mose sounds simuler to her Voice, But it Cannot Be.

1938 - Out of the inkwell

A Few Clips As Bonnie Poe As The Voice of Betty Boop In Certain Cartoons

Mae Questel is The Main Voice of Ms Betty Boop, She had Appeared in a Few Things as Betty boop/ Musical justice/The Musical Doctor, She Won Helen Kanes Contract in a Contest and Then was hired to do the Voice of Betty Boop, She had Also Created Olive oyls Voice becuse in popeye the sailor olive oyl Did not have the voice mae questel had Created, Mae was also Olive oyls Voice, Becuse when The fleisher Studios moved to florida Mae Questel Stayed Behind and continued to do Olive oyls Voice

1931 - Silly Scandals/ Bimbos Initation/Minding the Baby
1932- Minnie the moocher/Chess-Nuts/Admission Free/Betty Boop Limited/Stopping the Show/Betty Boop,MD/Betty Boops Bamboo Isle/Betty Boops Ups and Downs/Betty Boop For President/Ill Be Glad when Your Dead You Rascal You//Betty Boops Museum
1933 - Betty Boops Ker-Choo/Betty Boops Crazy Inventions/Is My Palm Read?/Betty Boops Penthouse/ Snow white/I Heard.
1934 - Ha!Ha!Ha!/Betty Boops Rise to Fame/Betty Boops Trial/Theres Something About a Soldier/ Betty Boops Little Pal/Betty Boops Prize Show/ Keep In Style/When My Ship Comes In.
1935- Baby Be Good/Taking the Blame/Stop that Noise/Swat That Fly/No!No! A Thousand Times No!/ A Little Soap and Water/A Language All My Own/Betty Boop and Grampy/Judge For a Day/Making Stars/Henry, The Funniest Living American/Little Nobody
1936- Betty Boop and the Little King/Not Now/ Betty Boop and Little Jimmy/We Did it/More Pep/Youre Not Built That Way/Happy you and Merry Me/ Training pigeons/ Grampys indoor Outing/Be Human/Making Friends
1937-House Cleaning Blues/Whoops im a CowBoy/The Hot Air Salesman/Pudgy Takes a Bow Wow/Pudgy picks a fight/Ding Dong Doggie/The Candid Candidate/Service With a Smile/The New Deal Show
1938- Riding the Rails/Be Up to Date/Honest True and love/The Swing School/The Lost kitten/Buzzy Boop/Pudgy the watchman/Buzzy Boop at the Concert
1939 - Ended the Series and Continued The Role of Olive Oyl
1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit As betty Boop (Cameo)

A Few Clips As Mae Questel As The Voice of Betty Boop In Certain Cartoons

The Wikipedia entry lists Dizzy Dishes as Margie Hines, then various turns by Kate Wright, Ann Rothschild, Bonnie Poe, and finally Mae Questel. Unfortunately, this website lists Ann Rothschild doing the voice for Dizzy Dishes. I think that this website, which quotes The Fleischer Story, indicates definitively that Mae Questel DID NOT do Dizzy Dishes, regardless of what IMDb says.

Because of this, I think CresantStar's analysis may be incorrect, since Questel stated in interviews that she provided the voice for Boop until the character's retirement. Any participation on Wright's part must have occurred before Silly Scandals. Moreover, this page (p.51), from a book by Max Fleischer's son, seems to indicate that Questel did the voice for the complete 118 cartoons. Further, this book also lists Mae Questel as the exclusive provider of the voice from Silly Scandals onward. I do admit, though, that the voices sound different in many of the videos. I'm not sure whether this is the print, the copy, the original recording, or the person providing the voice.

This book, about the history of Popeye, says that Questel did not originally follow Fleischer down to Florida with the studio move, which happened in late 1938. Margie Hines, ostensibly the first person to voice Betty, would take over as Olive Oyl. Questel came back after Paramount moved their animation studios back to New York. So it would be conceivable that Questel didn't do the last few cartoons, but considering that the last one came out in July of 1939, she could have easily recorded everything before the animation was done.

To further complicate things, this book lists Mae Questel as starting only in 1933, which I think is completely wrong, with Little Ann Rothschild providing the voice for two years. Both Bonnie Poe and Kate Wright are in for a single year, with all 1930 productions done by Margie Hines (Heintz, here).

I have listened to the four earliest cartoons and, unlike CresantStar, I see no reason to believe that they are different women. They sound a bit different, especially Mysterious Mose, but it appears that Fleischer was trying to find someone who could do cute but not too squeeky, and they may simply be different takes by Hines.

Now, with my continuing investigations into Betty's voice fully reported, onto the Bum Bandit.



There's not too much to say about the Bum Bandit. There are two things of animation note, firstly, Betty's facial expression when she says the words "Wicked Eye." I love the use of eye brow deformation to exaggerate the expression. It really adds character and focus to the face. The second is the first-person rush down the track to meet with Bimbo. As far as I know, that was a first in animation. It looks a bit crude, but first person is not something easily done in hand drawn animation.

This is also the only Betty Boop cartoon with an adult-sounding Betty. It's impossible to place who she is, but I'd simply assume that she's one of the usual suspects just not making the squeaky voice. Again, Fleischer was trying to figure out where he wanted Betty's voice to be, so this may have been an experiment.

Finally, this episode has another "impure" reference, with a swearing, fighting, hard-drinking woman, riding off in a train, finishing with a none-to-subtle reference that they're knocking boots inside that locomotive.

Salute Your Shorts: Fleischer Studios (PasteMagazine.com)