Betty Boop For President - Notes and Comments

Notes and Comments

• Betty Boop briefly morphs into caricatures of Herbert Hoover and Al Smith. Smith was the Democratic Party candidate in 1928 and was widely expected to run again, but the nominee would be Franklin D. Roosevelt. The use of Smith in the cartoon was probably the result in the lead time needed to animate the cartoon before it appeared in theaters.

• The cartoon ends with the image of a glass of beer; repeal or modification of Prohibition in the United States was a major contemporary issue.

• Betty Boop for President was reworked by the Fleischer staff sixteen years later, when the studio, by then known as Famous Studios, produced a Popeye the Sailor cartoon entitled Olive Oyl for President. This 1948 short reuses many of the gags, as well as a reworked version of Betty's "If I Were President" song, applying them to a fantasy story about Olive Oyl running for president.

• The "Nobody for President" slogan was later taken up by hippie activist and entertainer Wavy Gravy.

• The title was later used for a 1980 compilation film, Betty Boop for President: The Movie. While clips from other Betty Boop cartoons are featured, there are no clips from the 1932 short used in the 1980 film. The compilation was later re-released in 1981 as "Hurray For Betty Boop".