Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Betty Boopy Doop
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Betty Boopie Doop |
Betty Boopie Doop is a flapper girl character that appears in Disney's 1962 short titled A Symposium on Popular Songs. She sings "Charleston Charlie"[2] a song often compared to Helen Kane's popular 1920s song "He's So Unusual" by the Sherman Brothers.
Inviting his audience into his mansion, host Ludwig Von Drake introduces many tracks that feature stop-motion photography while narrating a history of popular music throughout the ages. The movie received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.
Cartoon historian Christopher P. Lehman considers it noteworthy that A Symposium of Popular Songs acknowledges African-American music as a component of American musical history during the 20th century, especially considering the time of the film's premiere. Despite the fact that the movie makes "no reference" of African Americans as an ethnic group, he points out that many of the musical genres employed have African American origins.
Professor Ludwig Von Drake states that he wrote "Charleston Charlie" while he was traveling and was asked by "Mr. Dixon" to put "Dixie Land" on the map. So Ludwig wrote a song called "Louisville Ludwig" but he later changed the name to "Charleston Charlie" in order to protect the demure, namely himself.
Betty Boopie Doop is a parody of Betty Boop and flapper culture. Her singing voice was provided by Gloria Wood.[3] The Sherman Brothers who wrote the music for the animated cartoon were the sons of the famous Al Sherman. His sons used some of their father's hit songs as ideas and inspirations to create new songs for Disney.
Al Sherman wrote "He's So Unusual" for Helen Kane. Sherman's song "He's So Unusual" was selected in 1983 to serve as the lead track of Cyndi Lauper's iconic album, "She's So Unusual". With classics like "Time After Time," "She Bop," and "Girls Just Want To Have Fun".
"She's So Unusual" launched Lauper into stardom. With scratches and hisses added to the song, Lauper's version of "He's So Unusual" paid blatant homage to the original 1920s production. This made the song sound even more like the original 78 record. Sherman's song's title served as the inspiration for the concept of "She's So Unusual", which took home the lone Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Boopie Doop substitutes "Poop-Poop-Pe-Doop" and "Poo-Poo-Pe-Doo" for "Boop" in her song. At the end of the cartoon, she can be seen doing the Charleston while scat-singing her "Poop" routine.
Trivia
- Her name should actually be Betty "Poopie" Doop or "The Poop-Poop-Pe-Doop Girl", as she doesn't actually use the "Boop" routine.
- Betty Boopie Doop sneaks in a secret "Boop-Oop-Pe-Doop" in the extended recorded version, but this is omitted in the animated version.
- Her "Poo" routine seems to be based on Helen Kane's original "Poo-Poo-Pah-Doop" interpolation.
- Unlike most "Boopers" who're brunettes or redheads, Betty Boopie Doop is a blonde flapper girl.
- Gloria Wood (an impressive mimic) and the voice of Betty Boopie Doop "partially" dubbed the famous Marilyn Monroe's voice for the higher notes. The other Monroe voice-dub included soprano Marni Nixon.
- It is possible that this blonde Betty with blue eyes, could have been inspired by Marilyn Monroe's character "Sugar Kane" from the 1959 film Some Like It Hot. In that film, Monroe portrayed a jazzy "Boop-Boop-Be-Doop" girl.