Saturday, April 27, 2024

Black History Month: Esther Jones, The Original Betty Boop

betty boop original design

Betty's Sex AppealUnlike Disney, Fleischer Studios' only real competitor at the time, Fleischer allowed several racy images and scenarios to enter his cartoons. In a couple of cartoons ("Mysterious Mose"-1930 and "The Old Man of the Mountain"-1933), Betty loses her dress completely, but is conveniently hidden behind a tree or in her bed. Very often Betty's curved silhouette could be seen through her clothing as she passed before a fire or other light.

The Origins Of Esther Jones, The Black Betty Boop

It seemed like Kane had a legitimate case—and her lawsuit made it all the way to the New York Supreme Court. The Fleischers trotted out a number of witnesses who claimed they’d heard “boops” and baby talk in nightclubs, cabarets and vaudeville theaters before Kane became famous. Always ahead of her time, Betty Boop and her sexy style have been easily updated to fit new fashions and fans. Her taste for adventure is often translated in to a rock n’ roll edge, and more recent Betty images show a leather-clad babe with electric guitars and motorcycles. She’s the only girl mentioned by name in the lyrics of Van Halen’s 1984 “Drop Dead Legs,” and she was one of many hot muses to appear in a promotional video for the Rolling Stones’ “Voodoo Lounge” tour in 1994.

Betty Boop Heart Embroidery Design - PES, DST, JEF, exp, xxx, vp3 trendy, aesthetic, Y2K, unique, love, cute

betty boop original design

In the film, she was depicted with red hair as opposed to her typical black hair. The collection took inspiration from Betty Boop’s flapper look and the brand’s casual-wear aesthetic. Betty Boop appeared in two television specials, “The Romance of Betty Boop” (1984) and “The Betty Boop Movie Mystery” (1989), as well as cameo appearances in television commercials. And while television revivals were conceived, nothing materialized to the degree originally planned. Betty Boop made her first appearance on August 9, 1930 in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Fleischer’s Talkartoon series.

Betty Boop Love Red Dress Men's T-Shirt

The fashion brand has released a collection featuring the iconic cartoon character emblazoned across merchandise. While the period that Betty represented had been replaced by the “Big Bands” of the Swing Era, Fleischer Studios made an attempt to develop a replacement character in this style in the “Betty Boop” cartoon, “Sally Swing” (1938). While a concept with potential, the character was not well conceived and failed to project an energetic personality of the type later developed by Tex Avery at MGM, or the type emerging from Betty Hutton, a major Paramount star and symbol of the “Swing” and “Jitterbug” craze.

Betty Boop Wink Polka Dot Star Women's Sweatshirt

Her signature garter, which was removed, was brought back by popular demand. Fleischer Studios promoted their leading lady, Betty Boop, with live variety shows throughout the country. Little Ann Little was one of the voices and models for Betty, along with Margie Hines, Mae Questel, and others. In the early 1930s, Little hit the road with Fleischer Studios artist Pauline Comanor, who would create lightening-quick sketches of Betty for eager audiences. Today is Betty Boop's birthday, so naturally we're celebrating the cartoon minx's greatest moments.

Betty Boop with Glasses Betty Boop Afro Girl Betty Boop Merchandise - District Womens V-Neck

Baby Esther herself was not available to testify, but Fleischer Studios provided a screen test—now lost—of Jones that convinced the judge Kane had copied the singer. Once in court, Bimbo escapes a penalty by producing a banjo out of nowhere, dancing a few steps, and singing portions of “St. Louis Blues.” The song, strictly speaking, is unrelated to the offense for which Bimbo’s been arrested, but he obviously hopes to gain the court’s sympathy by singing it as part of his defense. (The Fleischers apparently thought “St. Louis Blues” would be particularly appropriate to this cartoon because it deals with unrequited love.) The male judge and the all-male jury listen intently, and then dance to Bimbo’s performance. In the “Hot Dog” cartoon, Bimbo soon focuses on one female he thinks might be attractive.

On her 90th birthday, the Jewish origin story of Betty Boop - Forward

On her 90th birthday, the Jewish origin story of Betty Boop.

Posted: Sat, 08 Aug 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]

In the 1920s — and beyond — it was quite common for white performers to steal the acts of their Black counterparts without credit or compensation. But, whereas the Black performers of today can rally people to their cause using the power of social media, Black performers of yester-year — like Esther Jones — weren’t quite as lucky. “When Walton produced a sound film featuring Baby Esther practicing in her baby voice and “scatting” as proof, Kane, at the height of her career, was exposed as a fraud and lost the case. Headline-making scandals in 1920s Hollywood had led to intense public scrutiny of the industry, with a slew of states enacting film censorship laws. Moviemakers decided they needed a trade organization to help protect their interests; in 1927, the resulting Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) created a list of “Don’ts” and “Be-Carefuls” for films to adhere to in order to avoid further censorship. That list served as the framework for the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code (commonly known as the Hays Code after MPPDA president Will H. Hays), which outlined how to approach subjects like sex, dancing, drugs, vulgarity and crime.

Baby Esther Lee Jones’ Tragic Anonymity Despite Being The Original Betty Boop

In the years to follow, she would appear in clumsily colored re-releases (1970) on television, but her real revival came about during the late 60's and early 70's, when her cartoons began to appear in late night showings at college town theaters, as well as part of psychedelic light shows. Since then she has remained popular, with a fan following that becomes larger every day. The 90's celebration of her 60th anniversary brought her back into the public eye even more. To commemorate the event, A&E did a Biography special on her and on the Fleischers, and the American Movie Classics channel (AMC) has shown several of her cartoons. Her cartoons are now available to the general public in an 8 tape set from Republic Pictures. Years before Disney Studios released the retelling of the classic Snow White story, Betty Boop starred as the ebony-haired princess in 1933.

Cancelled film projects

Betty Boop was dreamed up by Max Fleischer, a major pioneer in the creative and technical development of animated films, and originally drawn by Grim Natwick . Fleisher's 1915 invention, the Rotoscope, introduced a technique in which animators traced over filmed action, creating life-like movement that changed cartoons forever. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, Fleischer’s invention could perfectly capture every bounce and flounce of his flapper-style sweetheart, Betty Boop.

By the summer of 1933, Betty Boop was ready to use her star power to introduce fresh talent. Before our favorite spinach-eating sailor had his own series, Popeye performed a choreographed hula dance alongside a scantily-clad Betty. Popeye the Sailor’s catchy theme song (and his good company) made him an instant success.

He responds to Betty’s attentions by enthusiastically dancing in place and accompanying her on a ukulele. All this would seem quite promising, except that Bimbo leaves the premises soon after this exchange, apparently having completely forgotten about Betty. The lyrics were from the song “I Have to Have You,” written by Leo Robin and performed by Helen Kane in the 1929 musical comedy film “Pointed Heels,” in which she costarred with William Powell and Fay Wray.

And Jones’s performance inspired Kane to incorporate it into her own act — an act that would forever be immortalized in the Betty Boop cartoons. And, despite her relationship to the internationally-known character, Jones’s life — and death — remain shrouded in mystery. In fact, few recordings of her work remain, and what little is known about her came out in a lawsuit that exposed the real Betty Boop’s true origins once and for all.

To create the capsule, Guess Originals worked with Fleischer Studios, Inc., the American animation studio that created Betty Boop. Writer Bob Martin also admits the musical bears some resemblance, coincidentally, to Barbie. Madonna flirted with the look a billion times, but she even had her own Boop-ish cartoon drawn for the opener of the her 1987 movie, “Who’s That Girl”.

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