The performer herself also took notice of the similarities, and ended up suing the Betty Boop studio, Paramount, for $250,000 in 1934 on the grounds that the production house had unduly profited from her image.ĭuring the trial, however, some shocking testimony emerged: an African-American singer named Esther Jones had used words like “boo-boo-boo” and “doo-doo-doo” in songs during her act at a New York cabaret in 1928. She eventually became known as “The Boop-Boop-A-Doop Girl.”Īfter Betty Boop began to make a splash as a cultural icon, many saw her as a cartoon version of Kane.
BETTY BOOP COSTUME FULL
Kane was a popular singer in the 1920s with a signature song entitled “I Wanna Be Loved By You,” a song full of scat-singing (and the word “boop”). So why didn’t she get the credit for inspiring the character? Because by the time of the cartoon’s debut, Kane had already taken it for herself. Baby Esther, who came up with the famous line “boop boop-a-doop” and many other notable characteristics of Betty’s. Though jazz-era chanteuse Helen Kane is typically credited as the model for Betty Boop, it was actually a Harlem nightclub singer named Esther Jones, a.k.a. This is a cartoon character with a lot to hide, after all.
But as it turns out, that’s not even the most interesting secret fact of Betty Boop’s origin story. If you read the first post in our latest Medium collection dedicated to the new Woolly play COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN FIVE BOOPS, you might’ve figured out that Betty Boop was originally a dog.
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