Betty Boop and the Hays Code

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Betty Boop is a beloved cultural icon, but she was controversial in her heyday. I talk with Mark Fleischer – grandson of Betty Boop’s co-creator Max Fleischer – and Mark’s wife Susan Wilking Horan about how the character was created and why she still endures. I also talk with film critic Marya Gates and Professor Thomas Doherty about how the Hays Code, which censored Betty Boop, had a profound impact on the moral universe of Hollywood films, and why this defunct production code is still influencing movies up to this day, especially with fantasy entertainment. Today's episode is brought to you by BetterHelp and Amazon's Faraway Collection. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? We have partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. They’re great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email [email protected] or click the link below to get started. Imaginary Worlds AdvertiseCast Listing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to imaginary worlds.
0:01.8	I show how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.
0:05.4	I'm Eric Minsky.
0:07.4	I mentioned in my last episode that Kamalot was my escape from reality last year.
0:12.9	Well, reality is still pretty scary.
0:15.5	And my other happy place that I go to for comfort are old cartoons, especially the cartoons from
0:22.6	Flicer Studios, like Popeye, Superman, and especially Betty Boop.
0:41.5	Okay, how many of you are tapping your feet right now?
0:44.8	One of the things that I really like about Betty Boop is that she wasn't for kids.
0:48.8	The cartoons were made with the understanding that they'd be played before adult feature films.
0:54.8	That was absolutely true. They were not intended for children, as cartoons came to be.
1:01.2	That is Mark Flicer, the grandson of Max Flicer, one of the creators of Betty Boop.
1:07.4	The other thing I love about the Flicer cartoons is that they feel so contemporary,
1:11.5	compared to Disney, which was their main rival back then.
1:14.3	Betty Boop incorporated real jazz musicians, like Cab Callaway, into the animation.
1:20.4	You can look at Betty Boop as probably the first music video.
1:25.2	The way Max brought in the cultural musical icons of his day.
1:29.7	But as I started looking into the history of Betty Boop,
1:33.4	and the context in which he was created, and censored, I was surprised to learn that even though she
1:39.2	is a character from a certain time and place, what happened to her in those cartoons,
1:44.3	and the reaction to her in the real world speaks to a lot of issues today.
1:50.1	In 1930, Betty Boop made her debut as the girlfriend of a dog character called Bimbo,
	...

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