The Hot Air Salesman
About The Hot Air Salesman
Wiffle Piffle, a door-to-door salesman in a top hat, is turned away until Betty Boop lets him in. He demonstrates a woolen hammer, rubber nails, a sieve that cannot leak, a mousetrap shaped like cheese, and a vacuum cleaner. Switched into reverse, the vacuum blows a piano through the wall. Betty sends him out, and he walks on to the next door.
Cast & crew
More about The Hot Air Salesman
Dave Fleischer directed and, with Isadore Sparber, wrote it, both uncredited. Max Fleischer produced it. Thomas Johnson and David Hoffman animated it. Paramount released the black-and-white short on March 12, 1937. Mae Questel, Jack Mercer, and Kate Wright supply the voices.
Themes
Making
The reverse-vacuum gag, a machine that blows instead of sucking, had already been used in earlier cartoons. Fleischer reused it here as the salesman's last demonstration.
Music
Mae Questel, Jack Mercer, and Kate Wright are the voices. Paramount released it with a music track.
Preservation
The 1937 Paramount print is intact and posted on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Wiffle Piffle had appeared once before, in Whoops! I'm a Cowboy. This is his second Betty Boop short.
- He is drawn with a long neck, a round head, a vest, and a black top hat.
- The character turns up later as a background figure in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
Scenes
- The vacuum, set in reverse, blows Betty's piano through the wall.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Betty Boop - The Hot Air Salesman (1937).webm)
