Baby Esther herself was not available to testify, but Fleischer Studios provided a screen test-now lost-of Jones that convinced the judge Kane had copied the singer. This was corroborated by Kane’s manager, says Pointer. Baby Esther’s manager claimed that Kane and her manager had seen Jones perform in 1928, then copied her style. 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.Īnd then came talk of Baby Esther, the stage name of an African-American performer named Esther Jones. 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. But soon, Betty’s ears became earrings and she was reinvented as a human being.
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