The Real Inspiration And Evolution Of The Betty Boop Cartoon

Betty Boop Goes Red

The Betty Boop most of us recognize is the voluptuous sex symbol with puckered red lips and jet black hair. But Betty Boop didn’t always have dark locks. In her first and only color cartoon, Betty Boop is portrayed as a redhead. According to Mental Floss, “when the cartoon was being syndicated for television, producers thought it might be a good idea to colorize the character, so they sent it to Korea for colorization, only to have it returned looking sloppy and cheap. No one bought the colorized cartoons and they were largely ignored as part of the library.”