Bimbo's Initiation

In this 1931 Fleischer Studios Talkartoon animated short film, Betty Boop's dog, Bimbo, is trapped in an underground labyrinth by a character who looks suspiciously like a demonic Mickey Mouse (evil Mickeys were common in early Fleischer cartoons).

In the caverns below the sewer, Bimbo encounters members of the Order of the Boom Boom a-Hotcha Candleheads. He is repeatedly asked by their leader to join the underground society but keeps refusing.

Bimbo journeys through a series of mysterious doors that lead him to a yet lower sub-basement, where his shadow is cast upon the bricks my a mysterious light. Bimbo flees through various death traps before landing in front of the mysterious order's leader again.

In 1994, it was voted #37 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation industry. The song "Wanna Be a Member?" is a parody written to the tune of the 1919 song the Vamp (or Vamp a Little Lady).

Margie Hines as Betty Boop
Claude Reese as Bimbo
Max Fleischer (Producer)
Dave Fleischer (Director)
Grim Natwick (Animator)