I asked her why she was wearing this outfit, she said ”I love Betty Boop especially that little dog,” I replied that the man that drew Betty Boop and created her dog just passed away in the hospice on this floor! She had no idea that Dad was there. What made this night even more strange was when Mom told me to inform the nurses station of Dad’s passing, the nurse that came on duty at 11:30 was wearing a Betty Boop/Pudgy scrub outfit. 4, 2006, my father legendary Fleischer animator Myron Waldman passed away, When my brother Robert arrived, he pointed out dad's final resting position had his right hand as if he was holding a pencil and his left hand flat as if he was holding paper. After his death, Myron’s son, Steven wrote that: It was shortly after midnight Saturday Feb. When he died in 2006 at the age of 97, the Associated Press reported that Myron Waldman was the last surviving Head Animator from Fleischer Studios. Myron Waldman, the Fleischer Studios Head Animator who created Pudgy, was the Head Animator for most of the Pudgy films and also had the distinction of overseeing more Betty Boop films than any other Studio animator, including this marvelous film: Pudgy Picks a Fight. Pudgy enjoyed a long period of popularity from 1934 to 1939 when he made his last film appearance in The Scared Crows. It wasn’t long before he was co-starring with Betty, at times even getting star billing. Geared toward a younger viewer, Pudgy was an endearing and very innocently mischievous pup. That this Betty didn’t have the same adult-audience appeal should be no big surprise, and neither should the fact that the change in Betty was followed by a change in the make-up of her audience. With the enforcement of the Production Code, a new, more demure incarnation of Betty emerged. Snooty made her first appearance in Little Nobody in which Pudgy saves her from going over a waterfall. He even had a dog-girlfriend, ‘Snooty,’ who was owned by a Mrs Fritzy Prissy. Pudgy and Betty had a much more appropriate dog/human relationship. Pudgy made his very first film appearance in the 1934 film Betty Boop’s Little Pal and continued as a regular co-star until almost her last film in the late 1930s. Shortly after, in 1933, Bimbo makes his last film appearance in the film I Heard. You can c lick here to watch and learn more fun facts about Is My Palm Read in our online Theater. In the film Is My Palm Read, currently featured in our online theater, the Fleischer animators are clearly taking advantage of what they know is one of their last opportunities to release a film prior to the enforcement of the Production Code rules. In light of these new guidelines, Betty’s relationship with Bimbo was very questionable indeed, even raising questions of bestiality. Adopted by the film industry in 1930 (though not fully enforced until 1934), the Code sought to clean up the film industry by censoring work that was deemed to be immoral or overly suggestive. This, however, was not a view shared by the drafters of the Motion Picture Production Code. People seemed to accept that Betty lived in a cartoon world where anything was possible! Neither did the fact that Betty’s dog-boyfriend wore a sweater and shoes, but no pants. The fact that Betty eventually lost her floppy ears and became 100% human while Bimbo remained a dog didn’t seem to bother audiences. Featuring one of Fleischers' own inventions, the ‘ bouncing ball,’ this crowd-pleasing series of films encouraged audiences to sing-a-long with popular songs by “following the bouncing ball.” The ‘ball,’ which at times might cleverly transform into a character like Fitz, would bounce on top of the words in time with the music, enabling the audience to sing along in unison, as can be seen here in the wonderfully inventive 1929 film I’m Afraid to Go Home in the Dark, featuring Fitz. Like Fitz, East Coast animals tended to interact with humans as equals, even having romantic relationships with each other, as we’ll see a little later in the case of Betty Boop and her boyfriend, Bimbo.įitz also went on to star in a number of the Fleischers' innovative Screen Songs. While Disney cartoons tended to feature farm-like animals in rural settings, East Coast animators like those at Fleischer Studios were working with animals like Fitz who were tough and gritty and inhabited the urban landscape in which they lived. One of the major, and most readily apparent, differences between East and West Coast animation can be seen in the treatment of animals. This combination of animation with real world action and the Fleischers' own wacky brand of shape-shifting, boundary crossing and unapologetic urban grit offer a very clear example of the East Coast style of animation. In the 1926 cartoon Ko-Ko the Convict, Koko and Fitz cause trouble not only for Max, but also for a real-life dog.
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