WITH the instinct of someone who is in the business of finding people good homes, letting agent Graham Moizer rescued Betty Boop from a street corner in York.

"She looked so sad, lost and forlorn as she stood on a damaged foot outside the Banana Warehouse in Piccadilly that I parted with £160 to whisk her away," said Graham.

He has now permanently installed the famous fibreglass flapper under the roof of Minster Property, his residential letting and property management agency in Walmgate.

Through the window passers-by are charmed by the comic cutie's splashes of lashes and curvy figure which was actually modelled on the 1930s screen siren, Mae West and had generations of cartoon animation fans ogling.

She may have been nominated for an Oscar for the cartoon film, Riding The Rails back in 1932, but until now she has proved to be a bit of a flop as a marketing exercise.

Graham says: "She attracts a lot of people, but so far that has not translated into lettings. People come in to have their photographs taken with her, especially women called Betty."

So what does Graham's wife and partner, Gillian, think of the sassy, life-size siren? Well, she knows the truth about Betty's past - the fact that Miss Boop started out life as a dog character and love interest of a mutt named Bimbo in the Talkartoons series produced by Dave & Max Fleischer. Only slowly did Betty evolve into the character she is (although her dog ears hung on for a while before becoming ear-rings.)

Graham, who has installed extra security in his shop to prevent Betty from being doll-napped, adds: "Gillian also knows that in spite of her curves Betty's more than 70 years old and she is not about to be overtaken by an older woman..."

Updated: 10:04 Tuesday, August 27, 2002