Inspirational Women in Hollywood: Susan Wilking Horan of Fleischer Studios On Why Betty Boop’s Message Is More Relevant Than Ever
…The basic human values we all share really don’t change over time. The values shown in Betty Boop cartoons from a hundred years ago — positivity, humor, kindness, respect, love, family, friendship — those remain the same. They’re timeless. That’s why we believe Betty Boop is still so relevant today. In fact, we’ve been working very hard for many years on a Betty Boop musical, which is now on Broadway. It’s called Boop the Musical. It’s a fun-filled, feel-good show that celebrates all the same values and characteristics we highlighted in the book and that we try to reflect every day through our licensing and merchandising. You won’t find a single Betty Boop coffee mug, t-shirt, or piece of sleepwear out there that doesn’t have a positive message on it…
I had the pleasure of talking with Susan Wilking Horan. Susan is a writer, attorney, business executive, and health advocate whose career bridges the legal, entertainment, and wellness sectors. Currently serving as Vice President of Business Operations at Fleischer Studios, Horan plays a key role in managing the global licensing of some of animation’s most enduring characters, including Betty Boop. Her personal journey, marked by professional reinvention and repeated encounters with serious illness, informs a body of work that focuses on resilience, informed decision-making, and the power of positive messaging.
Horan was born in Wyoming and spent her early years with a strong affinity for the American West, often describing herself as a cowgirl. Though she would eventually settle in Los Angeles, she retains a lifelong appreciation for the independence and fortitude associated with her upbringing. After moving to California, she earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from California State University, Northridge. She then went on to complete her Juris Doctor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, gaining admission to the California bar and beginning a legal career that initially included work in both civil litigation and entertainment law.
Her entry into the entertainment industry came through her marriage to Mark Fleischer, a longtime entertainment attorney and the grandson of Max Fleischer, the pioneering animator who brought characters like Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the big screen. When Mark assumed leadership of Fleischer Studios following the passing of his father, filmmaker Richard Fleischer, Susan became actively involved in the family-run enterprise. Over the past 25 years, she has helped steer the company through a period of transformation, including a major reorganization in 2019 and 2020 and a global expansion of its licensing strategy. Today, Fleischer Studios focuses on licensing and merchandising rather than production, with active agreements in more than 60 countries.
In addition to her corporate responsibilities, Horan is the co-author of Betty Boop’s Guide to a Bold and Balanced Life, a book that explores the enduring appeal of the character while drawing out contemporary life lessons rooted in humor, self-confidence, and compassion. She has also served as a producer on BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical, which recently made its Broadway debut. The show marks a significant step in the brand’s cultural reinvention, positioning Betty Boop not only as a nostalgic icon but as a modern emblem of strength and individuality.
Horan’s career has also been shaped by personal health challenges. Diagnosed with colon cancer at a young age, a condition that turned out to be hereditary, she later faced additional diagnoses of skin cancer and breast cancer. These experiences dramatically altered her professional path and led her to focus intensively on health education and patient advocacy. Motivated by the lack of accessible and comprehensive resources available to her at the time of her first diagnosis, Horan authored The Single Source Cancer Course, a two-volume guide that addresses both prevention and survivorship. The books consolidate medical information, legal advice, and emotional guidance in a format designed to empower patients and their families.
While her work in wellness began as a response to personal adversity, Horan has expanded her influence in the field through speaking engagements, podcast appearances, and online content. Her blog offers weekly features such as “Wellness Wednesday” and “Factual Friday,” which present practical advice on health screenings, nutrition, and stress management. Her writing and advocacy reflect a consistent emphasis on preparedness, proactive care, and the need for compassion within the healthcare system.
Though she continues to identify as a lawyer and writer, Horan views her most important role as that of a communicator. In both her legal work and her efforts in licensing, her focus has been on messaging. At Fleischer Studios, she has been instrumental in ensuring that Betty Boop merchandise, from mugs to apparel, carries affirming and inclusive messages such as “Be Bold” and “Believe in Yourself.” She sees the licensing program not merely as a commercial enterprise but as a platform for promoting shared values across cultures and generations.
Betty Boop, originally created in 1930 during the Jazz Age, remains central to Horan’s professional vision. While the character has often been viewed as a symbol of the flapper era, Horan emphasizes her evolution over time, from nightclub singer to cultural ambassador, and her alignment with themes such as female empowerment, environmental awareness, and social kindness. In Horan’s view, the character’s continued popularity lies in her ability to embody values that are timeless and unifying.
As a speaker and contributor to media outlets including Aspire Magazine and Chicken Soup for the Soul, Horan brings her interdisciplinary expertise to bear on topics ranging from neuroplasticity to grief recovery. She is also a visible presence on social media, using platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to engage with readers, promote health initiatives, and spotlight new projects.
Susan Wilking Horan lives in Los Angeles with her husband, balancing business leadership with ongoing work in public health education. Whether she is licensing a global icon or writing about cancer care, her efforts are rooted in a desire to encourage self-belief, promote wellness, and offer guidance through life’s unpredictable turns.
Yitzi: Susan, it’s so nice to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us a story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Susan: Oh, my childhood. I live in Los Angeles now, but I was born in Wyoming. I’m actually a cowgirl. When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a cowboy — not a cowgirl, a cowboy. That’s just how it was back then. I ended up going to school in California. I came out here and went to the University of California in Northridge. Wonderful school — I got my undergraduate degree in psychology. After that, I stayed in California and went to law school at Loyola, Loyola Law School downtown.
Yitzi: That’s wonderful. So please tell us the next chapter. How did you first start in the entertainment industry?
Susan: I married an entertainment attorney. His name is Mark Fleischer. He was an entertainment attorney for many years, 30 or 40 years. But on top of that, he came from an entertainment family. So I kind of married into it. His father was Richard Fleischer, a very well-known movie director. He actually directed 48 major motion pictures, I think. His grandfather was the animation pioneer Max Fleischer, who did so much of the early animation, including Popeye and Superman. He also created many characters through his studio, Fleischer Studios, including the iconic Betty Boop.
Yitzi: That’s amazing. We’ll talk more about that in a minute. You probably have some incredible stories from your career. Can you share with our readers one or two that really stand out from your professional life?
Susan: Well, that’s hard, isn’t it? You know, I have to take a little segue here. As you know, I went to law school and was practicing law. I thought I had my whole life planned out. I was going to continue with entertainment law alongside my husband and also do civil litigation.
Then, out of the blue, when I was quite young, I was diagnosed with cancer. It came as a huge surprise. When I first suspected something wasn’t quite right and started seeing doctors, I was actually told by the first doctor that I was probably just fine. I said, “Doctor, this is happening, that’s happening. Is there any chance I could have cancer?” He laughed and said, “Absolutely not, you’re way too young.” But of course, I did. I was diagnosed with colon cancer, which I later found out runs in my family. I had no idea. That was a huge game changer for me. Everything I had planned for my life suddenly took a completely different direction.
That’s one major turning point. After that, I did go back into practicing law. But then another shift happened. My husband’s family business, Fleischer Studios, became a central part of our lives. His grandfather passed away in the 1970s, and then his father stepped away from the company. Mark ended up taking it over, and at that point, I joined him.
So I’ve actually been working with Mark and Fleischer Studios for about 25 years. In 2019 and 2020, we went through a major reorganization when we decided to go with a different worldwide licensing agency. That’s when we restructured the company, and I became Vice President of Business Operations.
Just so your audience understands, Fleischer Studios no longer produces cartoons. In the beginning, the studio created wonderful, iconic animations — many people still know them. You can find them on YouTube and other platforms. But what we do now is worldwide licensing and merchandising. We have hundreds of licensees in about 60 different countries. That really keeps me busy.
Although, I also still do some writing. One major milestone for me came after that cancer diagnosis. I thought, “Okay, my law career is on hold. What now? What would make sense?” That’s when I wrote my first two books, The Single Source Cancer Course. It’s actually in two volumes. The first focuses on prevention. The second is for those who’ve been diagnosed — what comes next, what to expect, how to navigate survival and treatment.
I did that because I was blindsided. I was completely caught off guard, and I didn’t want that to happen to anyone else. I thought, if I can put all the information I now know is critical for someone who’s just been diagnosed — because time is of the essence — it could really help. And if it helps even one person, then it’s absolutely worth it.
So I still keep my hand in writing. Those were my first two books. And now, as my life has evolved and I’m deeply involved with Fleischer Studios, I’ve co-authored another book with Kristi Ling Spencer. It’s based on the cartoon character Betty Boop and explores her relevance in today’s world.
Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a funny mistake you made when you were first starting out, and the lesson you learned from it?
Susan: Oh gosh. You know, there are so many stories connected to my work now and Fleischer Studios, but if we’re talking about big mistakes, we’d have to go back to the side of me that’s the health and wellness advocate.
I haven’t just had one cancer diagnosis — I’ve had three. And I made a lot of mistakes along the way, Yitzi. I didn’t know how to handle it. I wasn’t prepared, especially for the first diagnosis. It’s not exactly a funny story, but I did learn how important it is to be prepared for the unexpected.
I’ve learned a lot from that. Our lives rarely go exactly the way we want or the way we plan. I think it’s important to always be ready for the turns and changes in the road.
Yitzi: Susan, you have so much impressive work. We touched on this a little bit, but can you share with our readers some exciting new projects you’re working on right now?
Susan: Well, gosh, let’s see. I just mentioned a book that came out. It’s called Betty Boop’s Guide to a Bold and Balanced Life. The purpose of the book was to take a 100-year-old, very iconic cartoon character and explain why she’s still so popular in today’s world. The world has changed drastically, so why is this character still resonating?
It occurred to me that the original cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios — especially the Betty Boop ones, and there are over 100 of them — often have some kind of lesson. They teach how to stand up to bullies. They teach kindness. In some of Betty’s cartoons, she was already recycling, repurposing, and paying attention to climate change and the environment.
She became a real symbol, especially for women. Here’s an interesting fact: she was created in 1930 by Max Fleischer, just 10 years after the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920. So women had only had the vote for a decade when Betty Boop came onto the scene. One of the things she became known for was embracing this newfound independence and freedom that women everywhere were beginning to feel.
In her cartoons, she was a lion tamer, an aviator, a race car driver — she did everything. And what she did every day was remind women they could do anything they wanted and be anything they wanted to be.
So, with that theme and the values of kindness, positivity, and humor — which is such a big part of her character — we created a book with 10 chapters, each one focused on a different cartoon and the values it expressed. We explored why those values are still important today.
Because here at Fleischer Studios — call us naive, call us crazy — but we actually believe that the values that unite us as human beings are stronger than the things that divide us.
Yitzi: What are the takeaways you hope society will gain from the motifs in your book in particular, and from Betty Boop in general?
Susan: That the basic human values we all share really don’t change over time. The values shown in Betty Boop cartoons from a hundred years ago — positivity, humor, kindness, respect, love, family, friendship — those remain the same. They’re timeless. That’s why we believe Betty Boop is still so relevant today.
In fact, we’ve been working very hard for many years on a Betty Boop musical, which is now on Broadway. It’s called Boop the Musical. It’s a fun-filled, feel-good show that celebrates all the same values and characteristics we highlighted in the book and that we try to reflect every day through our licensing and merchandising.
You won’t find a single Betty Boop coffee mug, t-shirt, or piece of sleepwear out there that doesn’t have a positive message on it.
Yitzi: I think some people see Betty Boop as a sex symbol. Correct me if I’m wrong — how do you characterize that?
Susan: Yeah, isn’t that funny? In the old cartoons, Betty Boop was a flapper. And the flappers of that era — you’re absolutely right — they had short spit curls, short dresses, garters, big eyes, full lips. That was the jazz age style of the American flapper, and most women in the country embraced that look.
Betty was born during that age, and she reflected that style. But if you follow her over time, there was a shift. In 1934, something called the Hays Code was introduced. It was a set of guidelines to ensure that all entertainment — movies, shows, cartoons — remained respectable.
When the Hays Code came into effect, you see changes in Betty’s cartoons. Her dresses got longer, her necklines higher. She wasn’t quite the flapper anymore. She couldn’t travel as freely or be as independent. Instead, she took on more domestic roles — babysitter, hotel manager, good neighbor, baker. That’s when her image really began to shift.
In the 1950s, during the era of the pinup girl — with Marilyn Monroe and others — Betty Boop was seen more in that light. At that time, yes, she was considered sexy.
But today, we don’t see Betty Boop as a sexy character. We see her as sassy. She’s witty, funny, independent, and strong. Those are the attributes we focus on and share with women around the world and with all of her fans.
Yitzi: Was Betty Boop modeled after a particular person or an amalgam of people? And if yes, we’d love to hear.
Susan: That’s a great question because there are different stories out there about where she came from and who she was modeled after. This is really interesting because it’s all documented, but a lot of people don’t bother to do their homework or research anymore.
Betty Boop was born in 1930, created right in the middle of the Jazz Age. There were many jazz age artists of the day who are sometimes mentioned in the same context as Betty Boop. There was Esther Jones, Florence Mills, Gertrude Saunders — lots of different jazz age performers.
But actually, when Betty was first created, she wasn’t even human. She wasn’t based on a human character. She was originally a canine character, as most animated characters were back then. Most of them were animals. She was created to be a partner to a character named Bimbo, who was also a dog and owned a nightclub for animals. Betty came on as a singer and dancer. She had long, cocker spaniel-like ears and droopy eyes, and she really looked like the canine character she was.
She gradually evolved into a fully human character. For example, the long puppy dog ears were shortened and became her signature hoop earrings. You can see a lot of these changes take place as Betty began to evolve into the flapper. She started to take on the appearance of all the jazz age artists of the time.
There was no one person in particular, even though I know there are different narratives out there. It wasn’t just one individual. She embodied the style and appearance of many different performers. It was really based on a time and a style that was unique in American history, known as the Jazz Age. She came from this collective consciousness and creativity of so many jazz performers of that era.
Yitzi: Did Betty Boop have detractors? People offended by her, people who felt she was too progressive, too modern?
Susan: I don’t know. That’s a very good question. I suppose perhaps the people behind the Hays Code. But no, I would have to say she was incredibly popular.
She really tapped into what was happening in the country at the time — not just the style and look of jazz performers, but also what was happening with women and their right to vote, their newfound freedoms, and independence. She was very, very popular, which is another reason why I think she’s still around today — and even more popular now. So that’s a hard question to answer.
Yitzi: That’s great. Okay, so this is our signature question. Susan, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success and you must have learned a great deal from your experiences. Let’s focus particularly on writing, because I know we could talk about so many things. Can you share five things that you’ve learned now that you wish you knew when you first started your writing career?
Susan: Wow. Okay, five things.
- I think, first, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. Don’t let anyone dissuade you from writing about something you believe is necessary or a good idea.
- Follow your heart. Believe in yourself a little bit more. This is actually one of the phrases we use in our licensing: believe in yourself.
- And don’t give up. If the first door doesn’t open, keep knocking on other doors until one does.
- Don’t listen to people who don’t like what you’re doing.
- I think the bulk of what I’ve learned is that you really have to trust yourself. Don’t let anyone else tell you you’re right or wrong. Follow your own path, keep at it, and don’t give up.
Yitzi: This is our final aspirational question. Susan, because of your great work and the platform that you’ve built, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Susan: You know, Yitzi, I think that’s what I try to do every day in my work. When we’re doing licensing and merchandising, it’s not just about manufacturing icebox magnets or coffee cups or t-shirts. It’s much bigger than that. This is where the positive messaging comes in, because what we really try to do — what I try to do every day in my work — is leave someone with a positive message. Whether it’s “You are capable of amazing things,” or “Love yourself a little bit more,” or “Attitude is everything,” or “Be bold, be brave.”
I think those kinds of messages can go a long way in inspiring someone to be kind, to respect others, to have more fun in life, to treat people a little better. That is my movement. In everything I do, and everything we do here at Fleischer Studios, all of us try to bring positivity, humor, kindness, and generosity to our work. Everything is much bigger than just a piece of merchandise. It’s got to have a wonderful, positive message that resonates with someone out there in the world.
Yitzi: So beautiful. Susan, how can our readers purchase your book? How can they continue to follow your work? How can they support you in any possible way?
Susan: Thank you, Yitzi. Of course, my website is very simple — it’s my name, SusanWilkingHoran.com. Betty Boop’s Guide to a Bold and Balanced Life, and my first two books, as well as contributions to other books like Chicken Soup for the Soul, are all available on Amazon.
Yitzi: Susan, it’s been so delightful meeting you. I wish you continued success, good health, and blessings. I hope we can do this again next year when you publish your next book.
Susan: Oh yes, I look forward to that too. Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. Yitzi, thank you for doing this. It’s been wonderful talking to you.
Inspirational Women in Hollywood: Susan Wilking Horan of Fleischer Studios On Why Betty Boop’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.