ModernGurlz, Apr 20, 2022 "despite being created nearly 100 years ago, betty boop is just as popular as ever. whether it's as vintage memorabilia or serving as cosplay inspiration, her unique look has made her one of the most iconic animated sex symbols of all time. in today's video we take a look at the creation, evolution, and legacy of betty boop." **** Edited by Azizi Powell This pancocojams post showcases three YouTube videos that present information, opinions, and video clips of the creation, evolution, and legacy of the 1920s cartoon character "Baby Esther". These videos also explore the subject of whether Betty Boop was inspired by the 1920s Black child star Esther Lee Jones ("Baby Esther"; also known as "Little Esther".) A few selected comments from these videos' discussion threads are included in this post. The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and entertainment purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to all of the performing artists who are mentioned in this post. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. **** SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR SHOWCASE VIDEO #1 Numbers are added for referencing purposes only
"I'm glad you made this video. I legit hope we can find out more about Baby Esther in the future. And that the misinformation could stop."
Ollaway Media, April 27, 2021 "Word on the web is that Betty Boop was really a black woman—but the story isn't really that simple. Helen Kane jacked her swag, but was it even her swag to begin with? And why does the internet keep getting the story so wrong? Watch and find out who the original "Boop Boop A Doop Girl" was and if it's a case of cultural appropriation, swagger jacking, or something deeper." -snip- SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
1. Daniel Burger, 2021 "What is also ALWAYS ignored is this..Fleischer/Paramount lawyers put Lou Bolton of the stand. Bolton claimed that HE(not Esther) had come up with "Boop boop a doop", and then taught it to Esther to perform. (There is also strong evidence that Bolton was a racist, and mistreated Esther.) Bolton then CLAIMED that he had seen Helen Kane at a Baby Esther show in New York in 1928. But...
Under cross-examination by Kane's lawyer, Bolton was asked where the club in question was located. He gave a non-existent address. He said that the performance ran "from four to eight weeks". Then asked where he was staying in New York for those "four to eight weeks", he could provide no answer. He was asked who else had been at the club that night, apart from Kane and Tony Shayne(who had since died). he couldn't say. He was asked who else had been performing on the bill along with Esther. He couldn't say. He
was asked what songs Esther was singing. He couldn't say. And then...he stated that he ALWAYS the wings during Esther's performance, meaning that the couldn't possibly have been at a table in the
audience with Kane as well at the same time. He then had to admit that he had, in fact, NEVER seen Helen Kane in the audience during a Baby Esther show.
The film is also misrepresented. Because while it had someone singing on it, there was no ay to verify who it was on the film, where it was recorded, or WHEN it was recorded.
Esther played no part in the judge's ruling. As you say, the judge merely ruled that Kane couldn't lay claim to owning the style. He NEVER stated that she had "taken it from Baby Esther".
In fact, going on actual evidence, rather than internet misinformation, there is no evidence at all that Esther ever performed "Boop boop a doop" at all. And other than Bolton's (later retracted) statement, there is no reason at all to believe that Helen Kane had even heard of Baby Esther before Bolton took the stand.
Oh yes, and Lou Bolton admitted on the stand that Paramount'/Fleischer lawyers had paid him at least $200(about $4000 today) for his testimony.
Then there's the fact that Baby Esther was a little CHILD from Illinois, and Helen Kane and Betty Boop are/were both voluptuous, curvy WOMEN from New York.
** 2. Daniel Burger, 2022 "@Shng275 Her hairstyle? Nope. Have you seen photos of the REAL Esther? In fact, the hairstyle worked against Kane because Clara Bow had had a similar look before Kane, and before Esther was born.
Her boops? The one person who claimed the "Kane stole from Esther"(and later had to admit it wasn't true) said that Esther never "booped". According to him, Esther used phrases like "boo boo boo" and "waa waa waa", which "Kane turned into boop boop a doop". So, nobody claimed that Esther was the first to "boop". And, of course, people were doing "boo boo" and "was waa" before Esther was even born.
Her voice? You mean the fact that Helen Kane had a thick Noo Yawk accent(as does Betty Boop), while Esther was from Illinois?
Her mannerisms? Like what, exactly?
Her fashion styles? You mean the tops accentuating the big breasts? Esther was 7 in 1928, work it out. Her sexuality? Again, Esther was 7 in 1928..."
**** 3. Ray Pointer, 2022 "I want to commend you on presenting a well-reasoned telling of this "controversial" story.
As the author of THE ART AND INVENTIONS OF MAX FLEISCHER, AMERICAN ANIMATION PIONEER, and contributor to THE FLEISCHER STORY by Leslie Cabarga, I have a grounding in this story going back to 1970. At the time, it was very difficult to find the details that have come to surface within the last five years, including images of "Baby Esther." It has only been since then that I found them, and since then more newspaper articles have come forward.
In an effort to assist, I might point out a couple of issues. First, the image at 3:35 is not Helen Kane, but Mae Questel, who was the most famous voice of Betty Boop. Also, I don't believe that Helen Kane recorded "That's My Weekness Now" before she introduced "I Wanna Be Loved by You" in THE GOOD BOY. According to my interview with Musicologist, Miles Krueger, it was that show that brought her to fame and lead to the recording contract with Victor.
Helen Kane's screen career ended in 1930 due to Paramount's bankruptcy that forced them to drop their Musical Talent. And while Helen Kane's image of the 1920s Flapper came late, this image did not seem out of date for the character that became Betty Boop, obviously. It would appear that Paramount encouraged the development of Betty Boop as a character as they were in the process of terminating Helen Kane's contract. Based on this, her lawsuit was not properly focused. There is no doubt that Betty Boop was a deliberate caricature of Helen Kane. But there were technicalities regarding Paramount's rights to her image on film to be considered. When the court was shown comparisons of Helen Kane's screen performances and the Betty Boop cartoons, the question came up as to whether any of her recordings had been used. While some songs recorded by Helen Kane such as "I've Got to Have You" and "That's My Weakness Now" were featured in Betty Boop cartoons, the recordings were done by imitators such as Margie Hines and Mae Questel.
Oddly, the first cartoon that launched the Betty Boop series in 1932, STOPPING THE SHOW features "That's My Weakness Now," and appears to have had a reference to Helen Kane that was cut from the original negative to hide any reference to Helen Kane. The suggestion of Helen Kane's image can be spotted in two Long Shots of the stage while the film just cuts to the singing after the applause following Betty's entrance.
Thank you again for presenting the history of Scat Singing and pointing out the false images of Esther Jones that have been circulated by those not knowing that Esther was a Child Performer, which we now have the evidence of.
The 1920s channel, Jul 18, 2021 "Esther Lee Jones was a child stage performer who was extremely popular in the 1920s and early 1930s, and was seen as one of the top-tier black stars of the Harlem Renaissance. But most people today have never even heard of her. So who was this little girl?" -snip- In some internet articles, YouTube videos, and discussion threads about Betty Boop, the child star Little Esther (Esther Lee Jones) is mistaken for the Black American (adult) singer Esther Phillips who was also known as "Little Esther". Here's information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Phillips: "Esther Phillips (born Esther Mae Jones; December 23, 1935 – August 7, 1984)[1] was an American singer, best known for her R&B vocals.[2] She rose to prominence in 1950, scoring several major R&B hits including "Double Crossing Blues" and "Mistrustin' Blues" under the moniker "Little Esther". In the 1960s, she achieved chart success with the country song "Release Me" and recorded in the pop, jazz, blues and soul genres. Phillips received a Grammy nomination for her single "Home Is Where the Hatred Is" in 1973 and her disco recording of "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" was a major hit in 1975. She died from liver and kidney failure due to long-term drug abuse in 1984."...
-snip-
The1920sChannel, 2021
"It has been said that Baby Esther Lee Jones died in 1934,
though there is no real evidence for that claim. Others say that she simply
retired that year and faded into obscurity. There have been many other young
women who have been mistakenly identified as an adult Baby Esther, which has
made finding the real one more difficult. If you have any new information,
please leave a comment below."
**
2. Anamarie Gonzalez, 2022
"Okay but no one's talking about how this 8,9,10 year old
child is so connected to being the inspiration to the overly sexualized Betty
Boop. 😳"
**
3. Lizzy C., 2022
"Betty Boop was based off of Helen Kane, who took inspiration
for her act from Baby Esther."
**
4. Thomas Hatch, 2022
..."Remember, Esther Jones was a little girl
at the time, Betty Boop is supposed to be a mature woman. Esther Jones didn't
have any of the visual signifies or mannerisms that Betty Boop and Helen Kane
have in common. Grim Natwick based Betty almost entirely on Helen Kane, with
some direction from Max Fleischer to make her a bit like Clara Bow, too.
Esther Jones may have had some influence on Helen Kane, but
not to the point of stealing Esther's style. Helen's style was already mostly
defined prior to 1928.
A lot of people misinterpret the evidence Lou Bolton
presented in Kane v. Fleischer as "Esther Jones invented Betty Boop's
whole style!" when that's not really the case at all. It was one piece of
evidence among many, from many other artists that pre-date Esther's act as
well, that Helen Kane didn't invent the entire baby talk or hot licks styles,
she riffed off various artists from her time to make her own work, as all
artists do.
The idea that Betty Boop was based on Esther Jones just
doesn't stack up when you look into the facts. The PBS article that started all
this even had to apologize and admit that they were inflammatory and
historically inaccurate."
****
A FEW ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ABOUT WHO INSPIRED BETTY BOOP (from various other YouTube discussion threads)
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
Source #1: From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJbuKVIOx2c
Terra Soars, 2018
"Grim Natwick, the animator at the Fleischer Studios where
"Talkar-toons" were made starring Bimbo the dog and Koko the Clown,
was one of the few if only animators at the time who could draw female anatomy
or even caricature it. When the song in "Dizzy Dishes" had to be
animated with the singer (was it Mae Questel? Little Ann Little? both were the
voice of "Betty Boop" at different times) using "Boop-oop-a-doop",
he looked for a model and subsequently just used Helen Kane whose picture was
on sheet music that was handy, spit curls and all. When the singing female dog
character eventually morphed to a human and became popular as "Betty
Boop", Helen Kane sued Paramount for using her image and style without her
permission. However, at one point, someone at Paramount found some footage of
Baby Esther that had a soundtrack with it (they worked nonstop to get print
synced enough to make the case). The film proved that
"boop-oop-a-doop" did not originate with Helen Kane - and Helen lost
the lawsuit. However, there was no doubt that her image was the basis for the
look of "Betty Boop". As for Betty herself, she was Jewish as were
her creators the Fleischer Brothers, in particular Max and Dave. They were from
New York City, where ethnicities and races of all sorts lived in close quarters
in the early part of the 20th Century. Very often in those old cartoons, the
characters spoke with Jewish accents, and Hebrew writing appears here and
there. In "Minnie the Moocher", Betty's father even wears a yamulke.
As for the footage of Baby Esther complete with the soundtrack of her singing,
apparently that has since been lost.
**
2. Beth Rogers, 2021
"there is no known authentic recordings or film of Esther Lee
Jones (Baby Esther) in existence.
Researchers and historians have
been trying to locate them for decades.
Esther came into the spotlight around 1927 or 1928. She won a Charleston contest at age six
around that time. No one knows much
about Esther Jones except that she was born in NYC sometime in the early
1920s. She toured Europe in the late
1920s and was a very, successful entertainer.
Her jazz style which composed of scat talk and dancing the Charleston,
was very popular at the time. Esther
Jones was the highest paid child star in the world in the late 1920s. She performed privately in Europe before royalty
and publicly at sold out shows across the continent. She returned to America at the start of the
Great Depression. Unfortunately for
Esther, the era of the decadent, fun loving flapper was over. Esther disappeared from the public limelight
around 1934. No one knows what became of
her after that time. She disappeared as
mysteriously as she had appeared several years before. She did not appear at the 1934 lawsuit trial,
Kane vs Fleischer. However, her name
was brought up in the context of the testimony as this video points out. It’s a bit of a stretch to say that Esther
Lee Jones was the original Betty Boop.
Certainly her style of entertainment, especially the scat talk, was an
inspiration for Helen Kane. Also, in the
Fleischer cartoons the character which later evolved into Betty Boop was
originally a dog. I personally believe
that any similarities between Fleischer’s cartoon character and Helen Kane’s
entertainment style, (perhaps inspired by Baby or Little Esther Lee Jones), are
purely coincidental. Therefore, I
believe the outcome of the trial made sense.
**
3. Jordan Goodwin, 2022
"technically it’s difficult to say Esther Jones even started
it, as Florence Mills, another black female performer did a similar scat
vocalization but instead of “boop”, it was “toot”, and Esther Jones actually
did an impersonation of Florence Mills the night that Helen Kane allegedly went
to her performance. the image of betty boop is definitely Helen Kane as at the
time Esther Jones was only around 9, and dropped from the limelight as a teen,
and being that she was so young and wore ballet outfits during her routines,
there is no way they got that outfit and silhouette from Esther Jones. The look
is definitely Helen Kane, and the sheet of music that first inspired Betty Boop
was in fact from Helen Kane, so it would be correct to say that Betty Boop’s
image was Helen Kane, but her singing style, although based on a Helen Kane
song, the style of music was taken from Esther Jones, who herself was inspired
by another black female performer, Florence Mills."
****
SOURCE #2
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL9rBgCgaVU
1.drsunshine1959, 2019
"Yawn. Another video
trying to debunk the inspiration for Betty Boop . First, there is much speculation as to
whether the woman in this photo is
"Baby Esther" at all.
As Fleisher historian Ray Pointer has mentioned, this photo has been passed off for years as
Baby Esther. Pointer traced the original
photo to The Art Institute of Chicago and ther is no indication that it was
Esther at all. Additional photos have
been put forward claiming they were of Baby Esther, to prove
"irrefutably" that she was the inspiration for Betty Boop - these
turned out to be pictures of a Russian model named Oyla. It has also been proven through research of
detailed court testimony by Esther's mamager Lou Bolton than she was a child
performer who began her career at the age of seven - not the adult performer
some people seem hell bent to pass off as.
Additionally, there were many women, both black and white, whose careers
preceded the creation of Betty Boop who sang in that style, which was popular
at the time. Among them were Helen Kane
(who - gasp - STOLE from Esther), Marjorie Kane, Baby Cox, Dorothy Lee, Annette
Hanshaw and Gertrude Saunders. And of
Esther's three recodings, two are songs that were introduced by Helen Kane
("Don't Be Like That" and "Is There Anything Wrong In
That?"). Helen Kane was under
contract to Paramount Pictures, as were Betty's creators, the Fleicher
brothers. So in all probability, the
character was based solely on Ms. Kane,
in both her appearance and her singing.
Unless it was recorded for history, there is no way of proving that Helen
Kane saw a little girl named Baby Esther performing and decided to appropriate
- sorry, STEAL - her fashion of vocalizing.
And who truly cares about how an almost 90 year old cartoon character
came into being? But you know those
evil, disreputable white folks have stolen everything from black folks. Which makes it difficult to explain those
all-black productions of GUYS AND DOLLS, OH, KAY! and HELLO, DOLLY. Come to think of it, has anyone seen a white
cast version of DREAMGIRLS or PORGY AND BESS?"
**
2. satomiwa, 2019
"I'm not twisting anything up. Betty Boop, the cartoon
character, was a caricature (and an unflattering one at first) of Helen Kane.
That is a fact. Helen Kane copped her "boop" singing style off
"Li'l" Esther Jones, who was a black 7 year old child sensation Kane
had seen perform in early 1928, but the cartoon character Betty Boop wasn't
based on her, it was based on Kane. Betty Boop even looks like Kane, and looks
nothing at all like Jones. Even before Jones, another black woman named
Gertrude Saunders was doing the "boop" scat singing style as early as
1921, and she's often confused with Little Esther, but they were two different
people (that's possibly but possibly not picture of Saunders at the 5 second
mark in this video, but it's not Esther), and Betty Boop wasn't based on her
either, it was based on Helen Kane."
**
3. Beth Rogers, 2021
"There is no known authentic recordings or film of Esther Lee Jones (Baby Esther) in existence. Researchers and historians have been trying to locate them for decades. Esther came into the spotlight around 1927 or 1928. She won a Charleston contest at age six around that time. No one knows much about Esther Jones except that she was born in NYC sometime in the early 1920s. She toured Europe in the late 1920s and was a very, successful entertainer. Her jazz style which composed of scat talk and dancing the Charleston, was very popular at the time. Esther Jones was the highest paid child star in the world in the late 1920s. She performed privately in Europe before royalty and publicly at sold out shows across the continent. She returned to America at the start of the Great Depression.
Unfortunately for Esther, the era of the decadent, fun loving flapper was over. Esther disappeared from the public limelight around 1934. No one knows what became of her after that time. She disappeared as mysteriously as she had appeared several years before. She did not appear at the 1934 lawsuit trial, Kane vs Fleischer. However, her name was brought up in the context of the testimony as this video points out. It’s a bit of a stretch to say that Esther Lee Jones was the original Betty Boop. Certainly her style of entertainment, especially the scat talk, was an inspiration for Helen Kane. Also, in the Fleischer cartoons the character which later evolved into Betty Boop was originally a dog. I personally believe that any similarities between Fleischer’s cartoon character and Helen Kane’s entertainment style, (perhaps inspired by Baby or Little Esther Lee Jones), are purely coincidental. Therefore, I believe the outcome of the trial made sense."
**
4. Strawberry, 2022
"It may interest you to know that here in the Caribbean, Betty Boop was always portrayed with black
skin for years since I was born in the early 2000s . This also explains why a
lot of young Caribbean teens such as myself are
confused when we see white Betty Boop online. Growing up, Betty Boop was
on everything, on billboards, signs in the street and in stores. I never even
knew she was portrayed to be white in America. You learn something new
everyday."
**
Reply
5. Tibbiekat, 2022
"I too is from the Caribbean and born in the 2000s, I've
always seen both black and white versions of betty boop but didn't know which
one was real."
**
Reply
6. SK Wills, 2022
"To be Fair, Betty Boop was not Intended to be Human, but an
Anthropomorphic Dog. Like Her Boyfriend Bimbo was. She also drew from others, like Helen Kane,
Who is said to have Copied from baby Esther, but also from Clara Bow, Who was
not Copying Baby Esther but Who many Later Animators and Writers believed Betty
Boop to be based on, as She had a Similar Appearance and Reputation as did
Kane.
Especially since in Black And White Red Hair looks Black, and While Bow had Red Hair, Many Who Painted or Crested Iink Drawings of Her as Fans or as Publicity but Who had Only Ever seen Films and Photos in Black and White depict Her as having Black Hair even if the Image they Create is in Colour.
****
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