I Wanna Be Loved By You. . .

By Marina Rybak

In case you haven’t noticed the legendary Betty Boop’s shimmering gaze on the glossy pages of the major magazine publications, the animated screen sexpot has been staging a serious comeback and has been ready for her close-up since last June. Besides the simmering rumors about Bettie’s musical debut on Broadway, the quintessential Queen of Cartoons is starring in the Lancôme’s new Hypnôse Star mascara global ad campaign alongside the supermodel Daria Werbowy.

Betty Boop made her entrance in 1930 and was a loving creation of the Fleischer Studios. The character was inspired by and was based on the actual Bronx-born vaudevillian performer Helen Kane, who became famous for her signature hit song… ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You’. At her peak she was known as a boop-oop-a-doop girl because of her baby-talk, loopy style of singing.  Sweet Betty stole her thunder rather quickly and no rival could take Bettie’s “boo-oop-a-doop” away for years to come.

Though I still pledge my love to coquettish cutie, I am partial to Marilyn’s boop-boop-a-doop honey-voiced rendition of ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You‘ in the classic ‘Some Like It Hot’.  Her sheer décolleté could have had something to add to the melting effect of her famed performance.

But I am happy for the international licensing sensation and her freshly minted high heel strut visibility. Starry-eyed glamour girl in the cleavage defining, garter flashing shapely number can still win you with a wink. Not too shabby for the eighty plus. The octogenarians everywhere, take a hint. From Betty White to Betty Boop, I see a trend here. Age is an attitude anyway. It is never too late to boop-oop-a-doop!