Boop-Boop-A-Doop

bettyboop03

I love old Fleischer Studios cartoons…though in short doses.  I one time made the grievous error of attending a Betty Boop Film Festival where they showed one after the other for hours on end.  By about 45 minutes in, my eyeballs were getting rubbery and the top of my skull was flipping open so a cuckoo clock cuckoo could pop out and announce the hour.  Finally, halfway through a cartoon called Bimbo's Initiation, I couldn't take another cel of it and I made a mad dash for the street where the lampposts were dancing and every passer-by looked like Betty, Bimbo, Grampy and/or Ko-ko the Clown.

But viewed 1-3 at a sitting, those films were great and so were the Superman cartoons and the Popeye cartoons and most of the other goodies produced in the operation run by Max and Dave Fleischer.  The family of those clever boys has set up a website to remember them…but I'll warn you: When you go to that site, it immediately starts playing a Betty Boop cartoon – and my luck, it's Bimbo's Initiation.  Pay particular note to the wing of the site that's labeled "Museum."  That's where the real good stuff is.

And on another site: I assume you've all seen the photographs of Ms. Boop, right?