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FLEISCHER STUDIOS Betty Boop poster concept drawing. Poster concept drawing for the Musical Mountaineers, 1939. Gaphite and colored pencil graphite and colored pencil on 16 field piece of Fleischer Studios animation paper, 15 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches. bears the short's production code and title at the top right corner.
This is a lively original poster design for the Fleischer Studios Betty Boop animated short Musical Mountaineers, which was first released May 12th, 1939. It depicts a joyful scene of Betty Boop (on flute) making music with her newfound mountain-dwelling friends, while their pig contentedly naps.
While the specific artist is currently unknown, it was most likely drawn by an animator who worked on the short. Credited animators are Tom Johnson and Harold Walker, and (via Fleischer animator expert Bob Jaques) Frank Endres is also known to have animated on the short, and possibly Lod Rossner and Otto Feuer as well.
The final poster closely resembles this rendering (except the cabin in the background was removed and ground added), and it is most probable that this pencil drawing served as the direct basis for that image.
Fleischer Studios had deep roots in New York City, and for much of their existence in the 1920s and 1930s were located at 1600 Broadway in Manhattan's Times Square neighborhood. In the 1930s and early 1940s Fleischer was the biggest rival to Disney Studios, largely thanks to the success of Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons, and besides Disney, they were the only American studio of that era to produce feature films (first with Gulliver's Travels, released 1939, then Mr. Bug Goes to Town, released 1941).
Original Fleischer Studios poster maquettes are an extreme rarity, and this music-themed design is a particularly memorable example.
