Was recently asked this by a shoe designer who has a whole line of Betty Boop inspired shoes. (More about her fun and sassy shoes later.)

Betty Boop was cre­ated back in the 1930s when Frenchies often had longer tails and rose ears weren’t uncom­mon. The bat ear had only been spec­i­fied by the French Bull­dog Club of Amer­ica about 30 years ear­lier. It took other coun­tries awhile to jump on the bat ear wagon.

Is it pos­si­ble that Pudgy (or Pudge) is a brindle pied, rose-eared Frenchie? Take a look at Betty and Pudgy in the images below. (These images don’t show it, but Pudgy has a big spot on his back.)

Cer­tainly gets you won­der­ing where Max Fleischer’s inspi­ra­tion for Pudgy came from. Short nose? Check. Cobby body? Check. Short coat, extremely cute and lov­able look­ing? Check and check!

For more on Betty Boop, Visit her offi­cial site (where most of the images above orig­i­nate), her Wikipedia entry, and a very ded­i­cated fan’s site.

And the legal fine print: Betty Boop, Bimbo, Pudgy, and Koko are owned by, copy­righted by, and licensed trade marks of KING FEATURES SYNDICATE Inc. and FLEISCHER STUDIOS, Inc. All images of Betty Boop, Bimbo, Pudgy, and Koko are copy­righted by King Fea­tures Syndicate

Now what about those shoes? Con­vinced Pudgy IS a Frenchie and you’d like to have him dec­o­rat­ing your tooties? Well today is your lucky day. There is a New York designer with a WHOLE line of Betty Boop shoes and they even look comfy as well as make a state­ment. The com­pany brand name is Milk­shake.

Here’s the line fea­tur­ing Betty Boop and Pugdy:
Thought Bub­ble Collection

And a line called Bloom. Have to say, that color scheme is some­what Ebul­lient! :-)

Best of luck to Milk­shake on the new shoe line and what a great question.

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