Animation &Animation Artifacts &Fleischer 06 Oct 2007 08:03 am
Grim’s Betty – Dangerous Nan
- The Bum Bandit was a FLeischer cartoon starring Bimbo produced in 1931. It marks the fourth appearance of Betty Boop – who doesn’t get billing in the credits. As a matter of fact, she introduces herself with a different name during her song in the film, “I’m Dangerous Nan, the sister of Dan McGrew.” She’s so tough she spits bullets through a cactus.
(Click image to enlarge.)
Grim Natwick did the drawing, posted here. It’s dated 1931, the year of the film. The drawn Betty looks better than the film’s Betty. A lot was lost in the inking – including her scarf and guns. (I wonder if it was cleaned up for our delicate times?)
I like seeing the peg holes which are certainly more sophisticated than the two round holes used in other studios at the time.
You can watch this film in an OK version on YouTube
(for however long they allow it to continue there.)
on 06 Oct 2007 at 8:38 am 1.Mark Mayerson said …
That’s a great drawing. Grim once told an interviewer that Walt Disney wanted to hire him based on a scene he did of Betty climbing on a locomotive. That scene is from The Bum Bandit
on 06 Oct 2007 at 2:15 pm 2.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Wow! Nice drawing! And what a beautiful line!
on 08 Oct 2007 at 7:53 pm 3.David Nethery said …
Great drawing. Thank you for posting it , Michael. You’ve got quite the treasure trove … and you’re generous with it !
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Excuse me while I fly off on a tangential animation collector/geek question:
I notice a lot of Fleischer drawings tend to be on smaller paper than the standard “12 Field” we all know and love. Did you scan and upload this Natwick drawing of Betty Boop at full-size ?
If you scanned this drawing of Betty at full size , then it looks to be 8.5″ x 11″ , which is a dimension I’ve seen on other Fleischer drawings from the 30′s . They vary from 8.75″ x 11″ to 9″ x 12″ , but quite a few I’ve seen are what we think of as standard “letter” size 8.5″ x 11″. Later , around the time of the move to Miami they seem to switch to standard 12 field size , 10″ x 12″ or 10.5″ x 12.5″, although I’ve seen a few Gulliver animation drawings on the smaller 8.5″ x 11″ stock . (which they must have been using up as the new 10″ x 12″ stock was coming into use).
Do you (or anyone else) know when paper size standardized to what we know as 12 Field , which is usually 10.5″ x 12.5″ , sometimes 10″ x 12″?
Did each studio have their own customized Field Charts and graticules before 12 field became the standard system ? (peg systems continued to vary , with Disney, Acme, Oxberry, simple two-hole, and the Signal Corps peg system I’ve seen you mention, but I don’t really know what those are … I gather similar to Oxberry, but not quite the same ?)
Almost all Terrytoons animation drawings I’ve seen are 9″ x 12″ or 8.5″ x 11″ even into the 60′s, so it seems like they always used the smaller paper. Ub Iwerks and Schlesinger’s in the 30′s used 9″ x 12″ paper . Schlesinger’s and later Warner’s were still using the two-hole, 9″ x 12″ paper as late as 1954-55 then after that they switch to Acme standard pegs with the paper size at 10″x 12″.
Disney seemed to always use their own 10″x 12″ ’5′ Field size (or 12.5″ x 15.5″ ’6.5′ Field) from back in the early days with the two-hole peg system to afterwards when they changed to the custom Disney pegs which were similar to Acme, but configured slightly differently. MGM after Harman & Ising used Acme pegs and 10.5″ x 12.5″ paper . Not sure about Columbia, Lantz, and some others. For that matter I don’t know what Harman & Ising used in their studio, but in the early to later 30′s it was probably the two-hole peg system with the smaller 9″ x 12″ paper , which is what seems to have become standard at Schlesinger/Warner’s for many years.
on 08 Oct 2007 at 9:08 pm 4.robcat2075 said …
I wonder what it was that Walt Disney found so attactive about that scene? It looks like the standard stop-and-start animation that Fleischer had in most of their toons. The way she swung her legs around, maybe?
on 09 Oct 2007 at 8:06 am 5.Michael said …
David, your discussion of paper size is something that has often interested me, though I am probably more interested in the peg systems used.
The fact that Fleischer was using the equivalent of an Oxberry peg in 1931 is pretty amazing. I have a peg bar from their studio though it couldn’t be used today. It was built into the desk. I’ve been told that one of the Fleischer brothers had devised a clamp-like system that the animators operated with their feet to release or catch the paper onto the pegs. It prevented tearing of the peg holes.
on 09 Oct 2007 at 1:43 pm 6.STWALLSKULL » Interesting Links: October 9, 2007 said …
[...] Grim’s Betty – Dangerous Nan from Michael Sporn Animation – Splog [...]
on 18 Nov 2008 at 7:36 pm 7.piggynose said …
thats grims designs for betty boop
she based on helen kane
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