Margie Hines

From the A&E "Biography" series, a review of the birth, development and cinematic history of Betty Boop, the flapper cartoon character who has been a popular icon since the 1930s.

Popeye and Poopdeck Pappy are trying to play poker, but Swee'Pea's crying keeps interrupting them. Pappy wants to smack the tot, but Popeye persuades him to try psychology instead. Popeye tells the story of how "George Washlincoln" chopped down the cherry tree. Inspired, Swee'Pea chops a hole in the floor, then tells the truth. Popeye rushes out to buy him a reward, leaving Pappy in charge, but Pappy believes in a rather dangerous style of parenting, introducing him to William Tell (from both ends of the gun). Pappy lies about it to Popeye.

“Boop-Oop-A-Doop” The queen of the animated screen returns to allure and entice audiences all over again in this fantastic four-volume compilation featuring many of her greatest adventures. Volume Three includes 12 animated short films produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. Featuring the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe, Ann Little and Margie Hines as Betty Boop. This collection includes the cartoons MINNIE THE MOOCHER (1932), I’LL BE GLAD WHEN YOU’RE DEAD YOU RASCAL YOU (1932), MOTHER GOOSE LAND (1933), THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN (1933), I HEARD (1933), HA! HA! HA! (1934), STOP THAT NOISE (1935), SERVICE WITH A SMILE (1937), THE NEW DEAL SHOW (1937), BE UP TO DATE (1938), OUT OF THE INKWELL (1938) and PUDGY IN THRILLS AND CHILLS (1938).

The happy tranquility of Bugville is shattered when the populace learns that a colossal skyscraper is to be built over their tiny town.

Shore leave in South America; Bluto muscles in on Popeye's girl, Olivia Oyla. Popeye muscles him out, but when they get to the conga club, he doesn't care to dance, so Bluto wins again.

A hurdy-gurdy man goes by Betty Boop's house; she wants to buy his monkey, which causes plenty of trouble for Pudgy the Pup.

Crime strikes the vegetable world when Mrs. Mama Carrot awakens and finds her children have been carrot-napped. She summons the Irish-Potato Police and they are soon on the trail of the culprit. But the various suspects they round up, and grill, aren't the criminals. They finally track down the guilty parties, who turn out to be a gang of mice in disguise. Thrown into a third-degree mousetrap, the mice soon confess.

The Fleischer's Talkartoon short that debuted Betty Boop.

Olive Oyl's screenplay for an Aladdin movie comes to life and Popeye battles for control of a genie in this, the last of the three Popeye color films.

Honeymooning couples of various animal species take a rocket ship excursion to the moon. Spectacular lunar scenery.

Popeye is doing a great job of sinking Japanese ships (complete with toilet-flush sound effect). A carrier pigeon brings him notice that he's been granted a month furlough, which he plans to spend with Olive and his nephews. But on arrival, he's run over by Olive, who immediately leaves him alone with his nephews, who are practicing home defense.

Popeye and Bluto are on leave in the South Seas when Princess Alona (Olive) comes surfing by in her Sarong, a bird perched on her knee. The boys are smitten, and chase after her. The bird warns our boys that any harm to the princess will result in death from the local volcano.

Olive's garden is being raided by some very persistent crows; she calls Popeye for help, and it takes him the rest of the cartoon to hit on the solution.

Betty Boop's Swing Band (sans musicians) visits an Indian reservation where Betty teaches the braves the true meaning of 'rhythm.'

The race is on for the state railroad franchise: It's the Onion Pacific - Popeye - against the Sudden Pacific - Bluto. There's a kiss from Olive for the winner!

A classic about an anteater who makes life rough for a colony of ants. In the ant community, the queen spreads warnings of their greatest enemy, the Anteater. "He's a menace, he's a brute, he will scoop you with his snoot." Their motto is "make him yell uncle," which they do when the anteater invades them.

Popeye wants to propose to Olive, but can't work up the nerve. His fellow sailor, Shorty, helps him.

Olive invites Popeye over for a hamburger dinner. His roommate Wimpy hears this and disguises himself as Popeye in order to be who enjoys the feast.

Popeye spanks Swee'Pea and sends him to bed without supper. He wrestles with his conscience over this, while Swee'Pea packs a bundle and runs away from home.

Bugs of all kinds convene on a jazz club for an evening of fun.

Popeye has replaced Bluto in the Spinach Theatre's production of Romeo and Juliet (Olive, of course), much to Bluto's surprise and dismay. Bluto does what he can to sabotage the production, like cranking up the snow and wind machines, and eventually coming onstage, even though Olive wants no part of him.

Olive has a small leak in a pipe; she makes the mistake of calling Wimpy to fix it, and the even bigger mistake of asking Popeye to help her do something until Wimpy can arrive. Meanwhile, Wimpy keeps realizing he's forgotten his tools, his gloves, etc. and going back. Popeye finally eats his spinach and manages some fixes to the system.

Popeye and Bluto show up simultaneously to take Olive to the movies. She needs to visit the hairdresser first, and tells the boys to take care of Swee'Pea.

A couple goes to the World's Fair.

Olive Oyl brings her new pet goldfish onto Popeye's ship, but the fish jumps out of its bowl and into the sea. Olive pressures Popeye to go after it.

Betty Boop (with dog's ears) can't sleep on a scary night, so she sings the title song and meets the gentleman in question...a surreal version of Bimbo.

Tom and Jerry work as piano tuners. After seeing them at work and several creative ways of tuning a piano (such as removing the offending key and cutting the key itself to a shorter length), the two attend an opera singers performance. The singer passes out when the piano plays a wrong note, and Tom and Jerry are pressed into service to re-tune the piano. After pulling the offending key from the keyboard like a bad tooth, the two give the opera audience a jazz piano performance, with the now recovered opera singer joining in.

Olive reads a ghost story to Popeye and Bluto. Bluto leaves and rigs a haunted house and lures them to it. But they quickly discover him and, even better, a can of invisible paint.

Popeye has a new car; Olive wants a driving lesson. Things don't go well.

It's Popeye's birthday, and Olive Oyl invites him over and bakes him a cake. Popeye invites depressed shipmate Shorty to join them.

Olive sends a farewell letter to Popeye: She's over sailors; it's cowboys for her; she's gone out west, to Bar None Ranch. Popeye immediately travels there to find her - and discovers Bluto runs the place.

When Popeye tells Olive Oyl that he will propose to her the next morning, she has a dream that their four boys will run roughshod over their house.

Bluto's in the Army; he tries to sneak off base, but can't. Popeye passes by, Bluto invites him in, then swaps uniforms. Popeye ends up in a tank drill.

"Boop-Oop-A-Doop" the queen of the animated screen returns to allure and entice audiences all over again in this fantastic four-volume compilation featuring many of her greatest adventures. Volume Two includes 12 animated short films produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. Featuring the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe, Ann Little and Margie Hines as Betty Boop. This collection includes the cartoons DIZZY DISHES (1930), BIMBO'S INITIATION (1931), BOO-OOP-A-DOOP (1932), BETTY BOOP LIMITED (1932), BETTY BOOP'S BIZZY BEE (1932), BETTY BOOP'S UPS AND DOWNS (1932), BETTY BOOP'S MUSEUM (1932), BETTY BOOP'S BIG BOSS (1933), MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT (1933), BETTY BOOP'S LITTLE PAL (1934), BETTY BOOP'S PRIZE SHOW (1934) and KEEP IN STYLE (1934).

Actually, Popeye and Bluto are already there. They visit a nightclub, where the featured singer/dancer is, of course, Olive Oyl.

Popeye brings his magical dog, The Jeep, over to see Olive and Swee'pea, just as the tyke has escaped from his crib. The Jeep leads Popeye on a merry chase looking for Swee'pea.

Popeye and Bluto are running competing penny arcades, trying to bring in customer Wimpy. Of course, he would gladly pay Tuesday for a penny today. And of course, their competing arcades show clips featuring each of them, with well over half of this short thus recycled.

This Tom and Jerry cartoon (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) is an opportunity for the animators to have fun with the medium. There is no specific plot. One of the boys uses a pencil to create a myriad number of animated illusions that could only work in a cartoon. For example, a short vertical line is drawn, which when held by both ends suddenly becomes a saxophone. When played, the notes pop out of the bell of the instrument to suddenly grow legs and transform into ducks. After the song, the saxophone itself quickly follows suit and becomes a goose. The entire short consists of these disjointed, though often creative and humorously unlikely events.

Popeye sits down to make a cartoon. He shows the results to Olive and his nephews: it's a damsel-in-distress scenario, starring him and Olive, with live music and sound effects by Popeye.

Olive rushes over to show Popeye the headline: Vaudeville is coming back. They agree to rehearse their old act. After a brief song-and-dance intro, the act begins: Popeye demonstrating his strength while Olive displays her flexibility and balance; impersonations of Jimmy Durante, Stan Laurel and Groucho Marx; and the last act, more feats of strength and agility.

Olive is going shopping and drops Swee'pea off for Popeye to watch. Popeye carves a sailboat for him, but the tyke spots Popeye's battleship, and the puny toy boat will no longer do.

Betty Boop, auditioning bandleaders for a college swing dance, "discovers" a cleaning woman who resembles Betty Grable

Olive gets a phone call that she has won first prize in a sweepstake. After a frantic search, she locates her ticket, only to have it blow out the window. Help, Popeye!

Popeye is heading over to see Olive when he hits a traffic island where a cop is directing traffic; when he gets there, he manages to get more tickets for blowing his horn and parking illegally. The cop rings the bell, and Popeye manages to wreck Olive's apartment by dropping what he's doing, each time he writes a ticket.

Popeye is having a dream. In it, Bluto interrupts his and Olive's flirtations with one another and keeps having the upper hand.

Popeye, feeling sorry for the puppies in the window of Olive Oyl's pet shop, buys all the animals (mostly dogs) and sets them free. A parrot declines to go, singing the title song to explain why it likes it just fine in the shop. Meanwhile, the freed dogs are not faring well.

Songwriter Harry Warren performs several of his own compositions, including "I Found a Million Dollar Baby" and "Shadow Waltz."

Olive has a map that shows the location of her secret gold mine, but while she's showing it to Popeye, claim jumper Bluto photographs it and gets there first.

Popeye's fan club sends a telegram asking them to tone down the violence and act civilized. So everyone dresses up and acts formal - for a while, at least.

Mystery Pictures is looking for a stunt man. Swee'pea tags along with Popeye, but he sends the tot home. Popeye shows clips of his stunts to the director, who is impressed; when he goes to put on the last reel, Swee'pea, who snuck back in, hands him Lost and Foundry (1937), which features Swee'pea saving the day. The director signs Swee'pea.

A hypnotist, frustrated by not having anyone to practice on, cold-calls Olive and hypnotizes her over the phone into coming to his office. Popeye rushes after her.

Utensils and food dance, sing, and play in the kitchen, until a lump of dough turns into a monster and they all unite to stop it.

Betty Boop and Pudgy, doing the spring planting, are plagued by crows.

Betty Boop and Pudgy take the train to a ski resort and enjoy the winter sports while Betty evades a masher.

Popeye and Bluto agree that women are too much trouble, so they agree to swear off them, which lasts about five seconds, until Olive comes on board ship for a tour. The boys vie for her attention.

One of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, Betty Boop was an irresistible package of playful sexuality, made even more endearing by her absolute childlike innocence. She represented the unsinkable American spirit in the heart of the Great Depression, and endures as a pop culture icon today — favored by children and adults alike. Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Volume 4 is comprised of thirteen animated shorts: Stopping the Show (1932), Snow White (1933, featuring Cab Calloway), Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (1934), She Wronged Him Right (1934), Red Hot Mamma (1934), Poor Cinderella (1934, in color), There’s Something About a Soldier (1934), When My Ship Comes In (1934), Zula Hula (1937), Riding the Rails (1938), The Swing School (1938), Pudgy the Watchman (1938), Sally Swing (1938).

In this Van Beuren cartoon, various animals are singing "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" before we go to a couple of cats-one male, one female-looking for the gold pot at the end of the rainbow.

Bimbo becomes a long distance accordion champ and comes through with a load of credit.

At Betty Boop's Auto Hospital, the cars are treated for various humanlike ailments.

Popeye visits the bullfight only because of lovely Senorita Olive. He finds himself accidentally in the toreador box, even though he doesn't want to fight because it's cruelty to animals. Popeye rides the bull like a bronco, then gets tossed around a bit. The bull plants Popeye in the ground and attacks; the crowd turns on Popeye. Olive comes down to help and the bull chases her. The crowd throws vegetables at Popeye, including (fortunately) spinach.