“Black Harlem Singer Was the Inspiration for Betty Boop.” NY Daily News. You can read more of the original article on at
Kane went to her grave without ever admitting to the crime.
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Sadly, with the Jim Crow era already in full swing and the theft of black artists’ creative material by white artists being considered commonplace, Jones never took up suit against Kane, likely because the burden of proving infringement against a once-popular white actress seemed insurmountable.
While Helen Kane’s career was already in decline, being exposed for her appropriation of Ether Jone’s unique style and techniques was certainly a blow to her popularity. The judge, recognizing it for what it was, dismissed the case. Jones’s intellectual property, provided a film of Baby Esther performing in her baby voice and scatting. Ironically, as Betty Boop grew in renown and Kane’s own popularity began to fade, Helen Kane filed a quarter-million-dollar lawsuit over the cartoon for infringing upon her persona and profiting from her artistic creation, “boop-oop-a-doop.” The case made it to the New York Supreme Court, where Walton admitted to having seen a performance by Esther Jones with Kane before she began using “boop-oop-a-doop.” Walton, brazen in his own lack of regard for Mrs. After Helen Kane and her manager, Lou Walton, saw Baby Esther’s acts they began to appropriate her signature style, right along with the scat lyrics “boo-boo-boo” and “doo-doo-doo,” which Kane transformed into the “boop-oop-a-doop” that made it into Fleischer’s cartoons. “Baby Esther” had become a regular performer at the Cotton Club in the late 1920s, so nick-named for the baby voice she used during her cabaret performances. The characteristic baby-voice and scatting that was the cornerstone of Betty Boop’s (and Helen Kane’s) singing styles were, in fact, borrowed from the performances of a jazz singer named Esther Jones. Betty’s well-known attribution to being a caricature of Helen Kane, though, has been proven to be inaccurate.
She found popularity with adults, who enjoyed the comedy of the double entendre present in many of her earlier cartoons. Her theme song, Pen and Ink,' made no bones about why she was. In a letter, he confronted PBS about the misinformation.In the midst of the Great Depression and growing conflict around the world during the 1930s, cartoonist Max Fleischer sought to raise America’s spirits with the delightful and entertaining throwback to the roaring 20s with the flapper-caricature Betty Boop. From 1932 to 1934, Betty Boop flaunted her strange brand of innocent sexuality in high heels and a garter belt. The real reason comes from the grandson of Max Fleischer, the co-founder of the studio. Historians refuted the PBS article, but the article and misinformation continued to spread.Ĭartoon Brew goes on to report that PBS admitted “that it did not follow established protocol to retract the story in a timely manner since the PBS Digital team that produced the piece believed it to be “promotional copy, not journalism.” The news site noted how PBS’s status as a trusted source led to the false story “spreading like wildfire.” PBS took six years to retract the article Jones’s involvement led to the false claim that Betty Boop was based on the performer.Ĭartoon Brew confirmed that “PBS…has issued an in-depth mea culpa acknowledging that they misled the public by falsely claiming that the Fleischer Studios character Betty Boop was based on a Black child performer named Esther Jones.” The "real" Betty Boop was a black singer from Harlem named Esther Jones /LvHlTb7PQh- BUST Magazine October 17, 2017
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