Baby Esther’s manager claimed that Kane and her manager had seen Jones perform in 1928, then copied her style. The Fleischers trotted out a number of witnesses who claimed they’d heard “boops” and baby talk in nightclubs, cabarets and vaudeville theaters before Kane became famous.Īnd then came talk of Baby Esther, the stage name of an African-American performer named Esther Jones. But it stalled there, thanks to the origins of her signature sound. It seemed like Kane had a legitimate case-and her lawsuit made it all the way to the New York Supreme Court. Some of the testimony became almost hilarious.” The press had a field day with the concept of a performer attempting to protect her popular “boops.” The judge watched footage of Fleischer cartoons and Kane performances.Įventually, says Pointer, “the court stenographer threw up his hands. He brought three women to court who had voiced Betty Boop-each of whom claimed they hadn’t imitated Kane and did their Betty Boop voices to prove it. She sought $250,000 in damages and no further showings of Betty Boop cartoons- and claimed that phrases like “boop-boop-a-doop, boop-boopa doop, or boop-boopa-do, or boop-a-doop or similar combinations of such sounds or simply boop alone” were her own-part of what she called her “baby vamp” act.īut Max Fleischer, the animation pioneer who owned the studio, didn’t back down. But so did Kane herself-and when she experienced economic hardship due to a layoff, she took legal action against the animation studio. Two years before Betty Boop’s debut, Kane had skyrocketed to fame with the song “That’s My Weakness Now,” which used the phrase “boop-boop-a-doop” as shorthand for sex.Īudiences would have recognized the send-up of Kane, now a Paramount star. The New York Times called her “the most menacing of the baby-talk ladies”-a reference to a vaudeville phenomenon also used by performers like Fanny Brice and Irene Franklin. Like the vaudeville performers that preceded her, Kane used her little-girl voice to deliver lyrics that would have been shocking in the mouth of another singer. Kane’s delivery-including her signature “boop-boop-a-doop”-was “a theatrical staple going back years,” says Pointer. The squeaky-voiced jazz singer was known for her sexy lyrics and baby-like singing, and Betty Boop delivered a spot-on imitation. Her wide eyes and sexy looks were a hit with audiences-as was the fact that she was a clear parody of popular singer Helen Kane. The new Betty Boop was a vivacious flapper who drove a car, did popular dances and showed plenty of skin. She also stopped wearing jewelry and moving in suggestive ways.But soon, Betty’s ears became earrings and she was reinvented as a human being. Boop was no longer a carefree flapper but instead turned into a housewife or a career woman in some episodes. The Motion Picture Production Code, industry censorship guidelines for motion pictures, also impacted Betty Boop's content. The innocent yet sexual nature of the cartoons was a problem for the National Legion of Decency in 1934, a Catholic group founded by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T, McNicholas. Many episodes also focused on men attempting to compromise her virtue. Some of the cartoons featured men trying to sneak a peek at her frame as she went on about her everyday life. Boop also wore a short dress and bodice that highlighted her cleavage. No other woman cartoon character at the time had a fully-developed figure. Fans of Betty Boop considered her a unique character because she represented a sexual woman versus being only comical or child-like.
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