The real Betty Boop
Helen Kane, the scatting flapper
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1929-1939
Born in the Bronx in 1904, Helen Kane (née Schroeder) worked as an actress, dancer and singer in the New York vaudeville scene throughout the 1920s. Following a string of appearances at the 44th Street Theatre, she was booked for a solo performance at the Paramount Theater in Times Square, where she spiced up her rendition of “That’s My Weakness Now” with “boop-boop-a-doop” scat lyrics. Her jazzy style, which nimbly combined speech and song, was a hit with flapper audiences. She was soon recording songs and musical films regularly, earning as much as $8,000 per week. In 1930, the cartoon Dizzy Dishes was released. It featured a singing character created by animator Grim Natwick that was the spitting image of Kane (with a poodle’s ears and nose). The unnamed character even sang “boop-boop-a-doop.”The character became popular, and was given the name Betty Boop in subsequent appearances. She was also changed into a human, with her droopy poodle ears transforming into hoop earrings. Kane had not authorized the likeness, and in May 1932 she sued the animation studio for $250,000. After more than two years in court, the judge ruled against Kane, finding that she was not responsible for inventing “booping,” but had herself appropriated it from black singer Baby Esther. Kane declined in popularity with the end of the flapper era, appearing intermittently on television in the 1950s and ‘60s before her death in 1966.
I just put it in at one of the rehearsals, a sort of interlude. It's hard to explain. I haven't explained it to myself yet. It's like vo-de-o-do, Crosby with boo-boo-boo, and Durante with cha-cha-cha. - Helen Kane, on the creation of "boop-boop-a-doop"
I had a song sheet of Helen Kane and the spit curls came from her. So I just designed a little dog and put cute feminine legs on her and the earrings which developed later started out as long ears. I suppose I used a French poodle for the basic idea of the character. - Grim Natwick, creator of Betty Boop
