Betty Boop

Designed by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio's Talkartoons, Betty Boop began as dog. By 1930 she had evolved into a coy flapper whose innocent skirt-lifting and trademark line "boop-boop-a-doop" were sweetly suggestive of more than just singing and dancing. She starred in over 100 cartoons from 1931 to 1939, getting increasingly less saucy (and less popular). She continues to have strong merchandising power.

Extra credit: Mae Questal, the voice of Olive Oyl, also did Betty's.