Something Creative

I’ve been looking around my house lately & wondering what a stranger would learn about me from what I keep around my house. I wonder how long it would take for someone to mention the unusually large number of items with some depiction of Betty Boop. In fact I have many things that I don’t even think about any more and they are spread throughout the place.  I don’t even really notice them in a conscious manner.

I can’t pinpoint a specific moment when my love for all things Betty began. I do know that in high school my nickname was Betty (my English teacher bestowed that upon me after a particular incident involving me locked in a closet & the pitch of my voice as I demanded release). I also had a very Betty type figure once upon a time.  While I’d adore being able to have the cute hair-do alas it will never be.

Slowly I started collecting items and by college I had a few little things.  When I ran across the full VHS set of cartoons it was a must have if only for the way it was created. Each spine in order creates a great black & white picture of the boop-oop-a-doop girl. I have spent many cold, rainy or snowy days watching those cartoons.  My favorite ones are the pre-Hays code cartoons. (The Hays code ushered in decency standards) Betty was quite the naughty girl back then. She appeared as a hula dancer in a grass skirt & lei which left little to the imagination.  There was everything from disappearing clothes to phantom sex romps in those heady days before the censors took over. Of course there are some great musical cartoons too. Such musicians as Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Merman & Rudy Vallee made appearances as both themselves & as cartoons. (I could go on and on about Betty’s cartoons as they are amazing pieces of celluloid.  Max Fleischer was a genius with a rotoscope & did amazing work.)

After college my collection exploded (the advent of eBay was a big part of that) & I came to own many different things.  I have lunch boxes, picture frames, figurines, a suicide knob, stamps from around the world and more stuff than I can even think to name. Whenever I have a birthday or someone gives me a gift it very often contains Betty Boop in some form. She always makes me smile.  And just try singing “I Wanna Be Loved By You” in that breath-y, squeaky voice to your partner & see what happens…(Let me tell you it can be quite exciting). Betty Boop is a sex kitten extraordinarie and one hell of a broad.   While I love my collection of  Boopabelia there is one Betty Boop item I cherish above all others.

This item is a small but permanent part of me.  I have a head shot tattoo of Ms. Boop on my left shoulder. It took me a long time to work up the courage to get it done.  I’m deathly afraid of needles but finally decided that I did want this piece as a reminder two things.

It is primarily a reminder that while pain occurs in life often times beauty is left behind. (This is something I need reminding of when life is looking like only pain & suffering)

The other reminder is to try to have the spirit of Betty…watch any cartoon and you’ll see that nothing keeps her down for long.  I strive to find that spirit in myself many times.  With her own guts, brains and body she goes out & gets what she wants.  There are times Betty is down, crying, in trouble or angry but she gets through it with herself intact. Her friends are there to help & support her. (This is actually something that I’ve forgotten at times but am working on very hard.)

After writing this & thinking about Betty Boop I hope that when someone who has never been to my house before sees my collection they take another look at who has welcomed them in.  I hope that they see a woman who has survived both good and bad times with wit & charm.  A woman who is gracious & caring without having lost her edge. I want this person (or people) to see a woman who has been knocked around by life a bit but can still smile and laugh.