Back in the 10s a photo of a black woman dressed as Betty Boop went around and told the story of Esther Jones, whom the woman totally was. And how Esther Jones was the original Betty Boop based off a white woman, Helen Kane, ripping her off.
This was pre ai but with tumblr and Pinterest coming along photo memes spread a ton of bs especially on older topics (one noted one from memory is a man with a twin on the back of his head who spoke evil to him. 90% of that story was fake).
Quinta Brunson annoys me, but I have no problem with her playing Betty Boop who also kinda annoys me (so it works). Here’s the real story about Betty Boop. And it’s wild. And long story short: no she wasn’t black. But she wasn’t human either.
Betty Boop debuted in the next super popular 30s cartoon: Koko and Bimbo. Koko was a clown and Bimbo was a dog. While the cartoons are inventive they also annoy me (but are very popular with old cartoon fans). In the 1930s the big cartoon characters were Mickey Mouse and co, Koko and Bimbo and Felix the cat. Betty Boop soon outshined her costars
She was originally Bimbo’s dog girlfriend before morphing into his human girlfriend. She appeared to be a mix of flapper actress Clara Bow and popular white singer Helen Kane.
What conspires next is well explained in this post with citations. But we’ll do our best here
Helen Kane and the news media noticed too (Clara Bow was going through a personal hell at the time and likely was too occupied to deal with it). The clincher being Betty Boop uses the phrase ‘boop boop a doop’ which was a phrase Helen Kane originated in a 1929 song
Betty Boop as a dog premiered in August 1930. Helen Kane sued for $250,000 which was a hell of a lot of money. The defense came up with an out: Helen Kane had ripped off black singer Esther Jones
Baby Esther was a black vaudeville performer who was 11 years old at the time of the 1930 lawsuit. Supposedly Kane had seen Esther performer age 6 and stole the phrase from her act. As proof defensed summoned one witness who was very vague on when this happened, and a sound test of Esther in 1928 singing 3 songs popularized by Helen Kane (well into the 1950s singers would often share a song. For example there’s easily 200 recordings of Its Only a Paper Moon from the 30s and 40s). This was 7 months after Helen Kane began using the phrase publicly.
Several other performers including two of Betty’s voice actresses also testified and claimed this was something in the ether at the time.
Weirdly a lot of online lore (including that photo who btw is from 2008 and done by Ukrainian model Oyla (Модель Оля) who in a dark twist, is not black) presents Esther as a full grown adult performing at the cotton club. Esther looked 10 and wore ballet style clothing on stage. She clearly wasn’t the physical basis.
And ofc there’s one more twist
Esther’s big claim in vaudeville was imitating popular black singer Florence Mills. She had been one of the first black performers to really crossover to white audiences. She died of tb in 1927. She wasn’t known for babyifying anything but her face does kinda resemble Betty Boop.
Aftermath:
Esther Jones toured the world (and never sued or even was involved in the Kane v Boop case). She was constantly upgraded to whatever black star was popular in her stage name (mini Josephine Baker, Farina’s little sister). She disappears from the record in 1934.
Helen Kane lost her suit and it prbly influenced future stars who had cartoons rip them off (Jackie Gleason and Fred Flintstone etc). Her style was so affiliated with the late 20s that it soon faded with the depression. She didn’t get a revival until the 1950s and died in 1966
For what it was worth the man who first drew Boop said he based her on a French poodle and Kane’s nearby sheet music.
Fleischer Studios remained popular through the 1930s and raced Disney to make the first full length color talkie cartoon film. It lost mostly due to paramount cheapness (their first film of that type was Gulliver’s Travels in 1939). They made it to 1942 before paramount ate them whole.
Betty Boop was wildly popular and often performed jazz songs. After the Hays code in 1934 they put her in a long dress and toned down her flirtations. The last original cartoon of hers was 1939. She didn’t reappear til Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
