Betty Boop - through the artistry of Karin Kneitel - garnered $1000 at an auction in support of breast cancer awareness! Karin created the bra, pictured on the left, and entitled it Betty's Boobs for a Cure.  

In case you’re just catching up with this:

In September 2014, Karin Kneitel, one of Max Fleischer’s great-granddaughters, created an incredible Betty Boop bra as part of the breast cancer awareness contest “Cups for a Cure” sponsored by her employer PSEG. She made the bra in honor of her mother, who died from breast cancer.  

Out of 200 entries, Karin’s entry was one of a handful selected and she won second place!

The Betty bra went on to be part of an auction at the Creative Cups event held in support of the Adelphi NY Statewide Breast Cancer Hotline and Support Program. It was also featured on New York’s NBC Weekend Today in New York with Pat Battle on February 22, 2015.

Betty came to life in 1930 when women, having won the right to vote just a decade earlier, were finally liberating themselves from tight, uncomfortable undergarments like girdles with attached metal clasps that held their stockings up.  For the modern, more liberated woman of the 1930’s, ‘garter belts’ and ‘roll garters’ offered a newfound sense of freedom and liberation.  Not only did they secure a lady’s stockings without the use of awkward, pinching metal clips, they freed women entirely from the restriction and discomfort of girdles!

Betty’s garter wasn’t just a fashion statement; it was one of the symbols of her status as a modern, liberated woman. For more conservative elders, the image of young women dancing with flashes of a garter belt showing represented everything scandalous and provocative about the fashions of the day, making the placement of the garter belt as much a statement about the woman herself as the wearing of it.

The Story of Betty’s Famous Garter …….

In her very first film, Dizzy Dishes, Betty is wearing (on both legs) what were known as ‘roll garters,’ fabric covered circular bands of elastic that would roll over the top of each stocking to hold them up. From these mainly functional (but still sexy) garters, Betty moved on to the more sensual lone garter that didn’t appear until her 7th film “Silly Scandals.”

Animators working on these early films used ‘model sheets’ as a guide.  These sheets were created to show the characteristics of each character, so that all the animators working on a film would be consistent about how they drew the details of a character. This didn’t always work as planned. The first drawing here (at the top of the page) is from a very early model sheet of Betty that shows the garter on her right leg--- a second drawing (right) from a later model sheet clearly shows the garter on her left leg, and states that it should always be there. In spite of this… and though Betty’s garter is usually on her left leg…. it sometimes appears on her right leg…. and if you look carefully you’ll even find a few films (like “Minnie the Moocher”) where, in the same film, it’s sometimes on her right leg and sometimes on her left leg!

Did you miss Betty's Boobs-for-a-Cure last week on the Weekend Today in New York show? Well great news! You can watch it right here now!

Karin Kneitel, the artist behind this bra is Max Fleischer's great granddaughter; and she created this fantastic, one-of-a-kind piece in honor of her mother who lost her life to breast cancer when Karin was eleven. 

This unique work of bra-art will be auctioned off on March 19th as part of a Creative Cups event supporting the Adelphi Statewide New York Breast Cancer Hotline and Support Program at Adelphi University. You can find out more about this exciting benefit, and the great programs supported by this organization serving those living with and impacted by Breast Cancer by clicking here.