Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle - Toonstalgia

Toonstalgia: Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle

A Fleischer Studio Cartoon

Directed by Dave Fleischer and Shamus Culhane
Animated by Shamus Culhane, Seymour Kneitel, Bernard Wolf
Betty Boop, Voiced by Mae Questel
Released 1932
Music by The Royal Samoans

The Royal Samoans

The Royal Samoans were a group that toured the United States performing in the 1920s and 30s. They provide the score for the cartoon and feature in the opening.

Bimbo meets Betty while traveling in the islands. Bimbo disguises himself and blends in with the natives. This all goes awry when they see through his disguise. From there, Betty and Bimbo must make a hasty escape.

Highpoints

The parts where the cartoon shines are where the characteristic Betty and Bimbo comedy and the dance modeled on the Royal Samoan dancer.

Pre-code

Betty wears a "fau" skirt (erroneously known to many as a grass skirt) and a "asoa" or "ula" garland. The provocative image would not have been approved after the code's enforcement. But I propose she wasn't just wearing a garland. Betty's dancing was based on the dancer in the beginning of the cartoon who is wearing a floral top. The animators may have simplified the costume for the ease of animation, left out the side straps to emulate her normal dress and unintentionally created the image of Betty just wearing the garland.

Is it racist?

At the time of this cartoon, American Samoa was a part of the United States and it still is. This cartoon was created 3 years after American Samoa was approved as a territory because the "Senate couldn't find them on the map" prior to that (Fairest Eden 1931).

It is racist. It is progressive. Hear me out. It was progressive in 1932 but it also includes stereotyped images. The Fleischers featured a non-white singing group in a cartoon. They also featured footage of the singing group in the beginning of the cartoon, their music through out and based Betty's dance on the Royal Samoan dancer. Their portrayal of a native culture features stereotypes and portrays islanders as savages. The cartoon is both racist and progressive for the era.

I know that's a strange argument to make. The world was pretty damn messed up then (not claiming it isn't now). In the 1930s, people believed in eugenics, "human zoos" existed in the early 1900s, the animators grew up on cartoons and media that often portrayed native cultures as savages and also no one had the ability to look up "Samoan Culture" on a computer.

I am only speculating as to the thoughts and intent of the writers and animators. They may have been repeating images and ideas they had seen all their life and as a result become inured to them. They may have attempted to create a cartoon celebrating the culture of Samoa and lacked the knowledge to represent a native culture. It may have all been a joke to them and the result of the exaggeration from which they drew humor for their cartoons. No one in Betty Boop cartoons is portrayed sensitively. People are dim, dumb, or caricatured as animals. Betty Boop herself is a caricature of a flapper.

Sources

Fairest Eden - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMwng_7ApD0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa

http://shop.polynesia.com/blog/grassskirts/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lei_(garland)

Betty Boop's Bamboo Isles. Dir. Dave Fleischer. Perf. Mae Questel. Paramount Pictures, 1932.

The Dollop, Not a review, A reflection on the effect

The Dollop

Not a Review, A Reflection on the Effect on my Brain

"The Dollop"
Created by Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds

Rating: Just listen to it.

http://thedollop.libsyn.com/

Okay, technically this part is a review

This is a reflection on the personal impact this show has had on me.

I downloaded The Dollop because of a name drop on another podcast and I've been working my way through the shows for the past couple months. I recommend it frequently. It's a fascinating show where Dave Anthony reads a story to Gareth Reynolds (Or Gareth reads to Dave) from American (or Australian) history and he reacts. It's funny, informative and entertaining.

The topics run the gambit of American (and Australian) history. We are a really messed up country. I Not just now...we are historically messed up. Listening for the first time was a little like when I learned about Christopher Columbus in school. Now, this might sound silly but it always ticked me off when they made that stupid song celebrating him discovering America because he didn't. The thought process wasn't any deeper than that.

The Dollop changed my perception. This is not a unique event for me. Occasionally, I'll hear a thing and it will upend my thoughts and ideas about the world. It's usually a fun experience I actively pursue.

My Mental Windmills

I was researching my great-great-grandfather tonight. I don't know how the man died. It's a question I've been trying to answer on and off for a while. I know his daughters were put into an orphanage and his sons were sent to live with relatives. I don't know why my great-grandmother's life was torn apart when she was a little girl. I don't know the answer because of the name. She was Polish so the name was not easy to spell. Dedkrowski...Decrosky...it depends on the paperwork. I might never know.

I was searching through the lists of deaths in different newspapers around the time and place he was supposed to have died. I noticed a jarring headline on one of the pages and read the story. A police officer in 1903 was arrested for brutalizing his six-year-old son. The boy's mother was arrested as well. While the father was out on bail, he committed suicide by throwing himself off a bridge. The article in the newspaper described how all his bones had been broken. Authorities speculated he might have been aiming for the river and missed. They talked to his other son who said the man would be kind one moment and cruel the next.

I don't know the ending to the family's story. I don't know if that little boy lived. I know that piece of their story and I know that my great-grandmother was put in an orphanage. It's dissatisfying to have chunks of stories. I keep gathering these chunks while I research my own thing.

When I research, I don't typically seek to write a historical narrative. I seek context for pop culture to understand what works of art meant when they were released. I seek to understand what was happening then.

The Dollop has made me reevaluated my writing and made me a better writer and a better person by making me aware of things I didn't want to know about. I'm grateful to anything that makes me better. I think anything that forces you to confront an ugly truth and can make you enjoy it is valuable.

Thank you, The Dollop for making me up my game.

Betty Boop M.D. - Toonstalgia

Toonstalgia: Betty Boop M.D.

A Fleischer Studio Cartoon

Directed by Dave Fleischer
Animated by Willard Bowsky and Thomas Goodson
Betty Boop, Voiced by Mae Questel
Released 1932

Rating: Effects may vary

Buy Jippo

Betty, Koko and Bimbo are in a small town selling their Jippo medicine causing effects like hair growth, aging and death.

Important Message about Patent Medicines

"Betty Boop M.D." draws attention to the dangers of patent medicines. Jippo produces many effects including death. Also transforming a baby into Mr. Hyde for the final shot of the cartoon. Thank you to classic cartoons for elucidating the reference. You can see their article on Betty Boop M.D. here.

At the time, many products were sold that claimed to be medicines but weren't. The Great Depression meant people didn't have money for doctors so they looked elsewhere for help. People profited from this desperation by selling elixirs that promised to cure their ills. Unscrupulous businessman made promises to desperate people...some things never change.

The twist in this cartoon is everyone knows Jippo is bad. It says it on the wagon but they buy it anyway because Betty is so beautiful. They suffer the consequences of not heeding the warnings.

Cartoons were not necessarily for kids.

This short shown before 3 different precode films when it ran in the theaters according to the advertising of the time, "The Mask of Fu Manchu", "Love Me Tonight" and "Blonde Venus". I have trouble imagining these movies would be of interest to kids or approved for kids in the case of "The Mask of Fu Manchu" but I don't know. I haven't been able to turn up a conclusive yes or no in my research.

"The Mask of Fu Manchu" is about a group of Englishmen fighting to keep Genghis Khan's weapons out of the hands of Dr. Fu Manchu and his daughter, played by Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. The movie was a thriller with violent and sexual elements.

While filming the movie, Karloff worried whether his Chinese fans would "object to his British accent" (The Evening News, August 27, 1932). Considering the racist content of the film, worrying about the British accent is strange. The character was so offensive that in 1945, just 13 years later, the Chinese government stopped a new movie from being produced in Hollywood.  Sax Rohmer, the creator of Fu Manchu, objected and claimed he loved China. Sax Rohmer was an Englishman. He had a lucrative contract in place for the new movie (The Des Moines Register, February 23, 1945).

"Love Me Tonight" is a musical, romantic comedy set in Paris and also with Myrna Loy in the cast. I mention this because I like Myrna Loy. She plays a countess with three interests: men, the fun life and getting her hands on her money. Anyway, in the film a tailor falls in love with a princess while pretending to be a Baron and they sing.

In "Blonde Venus", Marlene Dietrich plays Helen, a cabaret singer. She is unfaithful to her husband with Nick, played by Cary Grant, while he is overseas being treated for radium poisoning. He returns and learns of her infidelity. This leads to the breakup of her marriage. The threat of losing custody of her son makes Helen flee.

Cinema was different before the code was enforced. Their content was more "scandalous" and "immoral". The cartoons themselves were precode and they would change later to meet code but not for a few more years.

Sources

Betty Boop, M.D. Dir. Dave Fleischer. Perf. Mae Questel. Paramount Pictures, 1932.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boop,_M.D.

http://classiccartoons.blogspot.com/2009/06/betty-boop-md.html

Carroll, Harrison. (1932, August 27). Behind the Scenes in Hollywood. The Evening News, pp.2.

(1945, February 23). Called 'Bad Propaganda' Wicked Fu Manchu Dies. The Des Moines Register, pp.3.