Officially, Betty was only 16 years old, according to a 1932 interview with Fleischer (although in The Bum Bandit, she is portrayed as a married woman with many children and an adult woman's voice, rather than the standard "boop-boop-a-doop" voice).

When presented with an unexpected new problem, Grampy will put on his thinking cap (a mortarboard with a lightbulb on top). In short order, the lightbulb lights up as Grampy exclaims "Hooray, I've got it!" and builds a new gadget to solve the problem. The character was possibly based upon Max Fleischer's brother Charles, who was an inventor.

Popeye made his film debut in Popeye the Sailor, a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon. Although Betty has a small cameo appearance, the cartoon mostly introduces Popeye, who comes to the rescue of Olive Oyl after she is kidnapped by Bluto.

She was featured in 90 theatrical cartoons between 1930 and 1939, along with appearances in comic strips and mass merchandising.

Betty Boop ran for President in 1980, sponsored by a group of bemused businessmen headed by Alan Abel. Her slogan was "Don't be a poop. Vote for Boop!", and she had a 15-point platform that included raising marriage license fees to $5,000 to "eliminate uncertainty" and requiring that doctors publish their medical school grades in the phone book next to their names.

Although legal ownership of the Betty Boop character remained with the studio (as Betty's creator was a studio employee), Grim Natwick created the original design of Betty Boop at the request of studio head Max Fleischer, who requested a girlfriend for his successful creation "Bimbo". Natwick also helped to animate Mickey Mouse, Mr. Magoo, Popeye, Felix the Cat, and many other cartoon greats.

Betty makes a cameo appearance in the movie, appearing in traditional black and white. Working as a cocktail waitress, she explains to Eddie Valiant that "Work's been kinda slow since cartoons went to color, but I've still got it Eddie!" she then does her "Boop-Oop-a-Doop" routine for him.

When the flapper/jazz era that Betty represented had been replaced by the big bands of the swing era, Fleischer Studios made an attempt to develop a replacement character in this style in the 1938 Betty Boop cartoon Betty Boop and Sally Swing, but the character didn't catch on with audiences.