I'm gonna try to post on this daily, but please excuse me if I don't remember sometimes. Don't quote me on any of these, I'm just going on vague research.
Helen Kane, the inspiration for Max Fleischer's character Betty Boop, was not the original user of the speech, singing, and dancing style. That credit goes to a lot of people, the most influencing Esther Lee Jones, also known as Baby Esther or Little Esther, and Gertrude Saunders. (No idea what Gerty's stage name was.) Helen sued Fleischer Studios for $250,000 with the claim that they committed copyright infringement. However, the case was dropped due to a few factors, such as changes that rendered her argument invalid (i.e. She was originally the 'Poop-poop-a-doop' girl.) and several people coming into court to testify that she had stolen from them so she had no room to talk, like our Baby Esther herself.
Talk about hypocrisy. A weird thing about Betty, by the way, is that if you pause at a moment when her head is turned to give you a side view, her head is like that of a baby's, like a small nose and big forehead. I took the liberty of taking a screenshot to show you what I mean.
As you can tell, I'm currently obsessed with watching Betty Boop cartoons and learning all I can about the character.
Helen Kane, the inspiration for Max Fleischer's character Betty Boop, was not the original user of the speech, singing, and dancing style. That credit goes to a lot of people, the most influencing Esther Lee Jones, also known as Baby Esther or Little Esther, and Gertrude Saunders. (No idea what Gerty's stage name was.) Helen sued Fleischer Studios for $250,000 with the claim that they committed copyright infringement. However, the case was dropped due to a few factors, such as changes that rendered her argument invalid (i.e. She was originally the 'Poop-poop-a-doop' girl.) and several people coming into court to testify that she had stolen from them so she had no room to talk, like our Baby Esther herself.
Talk about hypocrisy. A weird thing about Betty, by the way, is that if you pause at a moment when her head is turned to give you a side view, her head is like that of a baby's, like a small nose and big forehead. I took the liberty of taking a screenshot to show you what I mean.
As you can tell, I'm currently obsessed with watching Betty Boop cartoons and learning all I can about the character.
