Be Up To Date

Betty takes a traveling department store up to the boonies to help modernize a group of hillbillies. The film opens with a road sign directing travelers to Hillbillyville. The opening scene is a long panning shot of the hills and houses. The camera pans to scenes in the area, which include the lazy townsfolk. One drinker has his jug hitched to his rocking chair, and two others saw a tree in their sleep. Betty is driving down the road with her trailer, which opens up to a complete department store when she stops. The mountain folks don't exactly know what the items that she is selling are for. As Betty dispenses her goods, the hillbillies make unusual use of her offerings. For example, one lady affixes a "seat" onto a carpet sweeper. A hillbilly uses an outboard motor as a plow, and a young boy uses a trombone as a pogo stick. Others make "musical instruments" out of a washboard, an insecticide sprayer and a trombone. Soon, the music brings everyone into a dancing circle, with Betty in the middle. Betty happily collapses the store back into the trailer and drives off.

Betty Boop, Hillbillies

This was later remade as the Popeye cartoon "Hillbilling And Cooing" (1956).