- Date: March 11, 1932
- Type: Movie
Minnie the Moocher (1932) is a Betty Boop cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. The cartoon opens with a live action sequence of Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing an instrumental rendition of "St. James Infirmary". Then Betty Boop gets into a fight with her strict, Yiddish speaking, Jewish parents, runs away from home with her boyfriend Bimbo, and sings excerpts of the Harry Von Tilzer song "They Always Pick on Me" (1911) and the song "Mean to Me" (1929). Betty and Bimbo end up in a cave where a walrus, with Cab Calloway's voice, sings "Minnie the Moocher" and dances to the melancholy song. Calloway is joined in the performance by various ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and other frightening things. Betty and Bimbo are subjected to skeletons drinking at a bar; ghost prisoners sitting in electric chairs; a mother cat with empty eye-sockets feeding her equally empty-eyed kittens; and so on. Betty and Bimbo both change their minds about running away and rush back home with every ghost right behind them. Betty makes it safely back to her home and hides under the blankets of her bed. As she shakes in terror, the note she earlier wrote to her parents tears, leaving "Home Sweet Home" on it. The film ends with Calloway performing the instrumental "Vine Street Blues". --- Why don't you eat!? Why don't you eat?! Just tell me what. Why you don't eat your H___? ... once more tell you to eat then I will ... out ... Do you hear? ... Aw, come on, Betty. No. Oh, papa! What's the matter? They always, always pick on me They never, never let me be I'm so very lonesome, awfully sad It's a long time since I've been glad But I know what I'll do by and by I'll eat some worms and then I'll die And when I'm gone, you wait and see They'll all be sorry that they picked on me Uh, uh, now what... Hello, Bimbo? I'm leaving home. Yeah? I'll go with you. Meet me under your window. Okay. Yoo-hoo! I'm not afraid. Are you, Bimbo? No. Folks, here's a story 'bout Minnie the Moocher She was a red-hot hoochie-coocher She was the roughest, toughest frail But Minnie had a heart as big as a whale Ho-dee-ho-dee ho Hi-dee-hi-dee-hi-dee Hee-dee-hee-dee-hee-dee-hee Ho-dee-ho-dee ho She messed around with a bloke named Smokey She loved him though was cokey He took her down to Chinatown And he showed her how to kick the gong around Hi-dee hi-dee hi-dee hi Yee-dee yee-dee yee-dee yee-dee yee Ho-dee-ho-dee ho-dee hey Ho-dee-ho-dee ho She had a dream about the King of Sweden He gave her things that she was needin' He gave her a home built of gold and steel A diamond car with a platinum wheel He gave her his townhouse and his racing horses Each meal she ate was a dozen courses She had a million dollars worth of nickels and dimes She sat around and counted them all a million times --- Talkartoons Max Fleischer presents Minnie the Moocher Directed by Dave Fleischer Animated by Willard Bowsky and Ralph Somerville Recorded by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra Featuring Betty Boop and Bimbo Ink Dear Ma & Pa, I'm leaving Home because you're not so Sweet to me. I won't ever be Home again! Betty Home Sweet Home The End