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Betty Boop
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Oddly, Betty Boop was the subject of additional publicity in 1934 when Helen Kane launched a major lawsuit against Max Fleischer and Paramount Studios for the "deliberate caricature" that produced "unfair competition" that exploited her personality and image. While Miss Kane had risen to fame in the 1920s as "The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Girl" star of stage, recordings, and films for Paramount, her career was over by 1930. Interestingly, Paramount promoted the development of Betty Boop following Miss Kane's decline. As Miss Kane's claims seemed on the surface to be valid, it was proven that her appearance was not unique in that she and the Betty Boop character bore a resemblance to Clara Bow, another major star of Paramount. But the largest evidence against Miss Kane's case was her claims to the origins of her singing style. While and outgrowth of Jazz "scat singing," testimony revealed that Miss Kane had witnessed a black performer, "Baby Esther" using a similar characterization in an act at the famous Cotton Clubnightclub in Harlem some years earlier.
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The first appearance of Betty Boop was in the 6th Talkartoon starring Bimbo, entitled "Dizzy Dishes" (1930.). Grim Natwick was the first animator to draw Betty, who had not yet been officially named. He took inspiration for Betty's spit curls from a song sheet of Helen Kane, commonly called the "Boop Oop a Doop Girl". Betty started out being designed as a human-like dog, only her black button nose and floppy ears hinting at her canine nature. These ears later became her round earrings, in part due to the fact that the Fleischer animators had a tendency to change animating styles and features of characters from cartoon to cartoon, and sometimes within the same cartoon. (In "Bum Bandit"-1931- Betty's nose changes from black to white and then back again in the same cartoon.) Her high baby voice, like her spit curls, were in imitation of singer Helen Kane. Her first starring role was in "Betty Coed" (1931), which ... marked the first time the name Betty was connected with the character.
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Betty Boop made her first appearance on August 9, 1930 in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Fleischer's Talkartoon series. She was originally designed by Grim Natwick, a veteran animator of the silent era who would become lead director and animator for the Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney studios. The character was modeled after Helen Kane, the famous popular singer of the 1920s and contract player at Paramount Pictures, the studio that distributed Fleischer's cartoons. By direction of Dave Fleischer, Natwick designed the original character in the mode of a French poodle. The character's voice was first performed by Margie Hines, and was later provided by several different voice actresses including Kate Wright, Ann Rothschild (a.k.a. Little Ann Little), Bonnie Poe, and most notably, Mae Questel who began in 1931 and continued with the role until 1938.
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Betty Boop, drawn by Grim Natwick, began life in 1930, as a human-like canine character, the love interest for a dog named Bimbo. She had a black button nose and floppy ears. That first brief appearance was in the sixth Talkartoon, a film called, "Dizzy Dishes" (1930). The films were produced by New York based Fleischer Studios, production by Max Fleischer and direction by Dave Fleischer. Betty soon surpassed Bimbo and eventually evolved into human form, retaining only her vestigial dog ears for a short while. They eventually evolved into earrings.
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[I]ntroduced in the 1930s, Betty Boop was created by Max Fleischer for his “Talkartoons” series, the first “talkies” of animation, which Max’s company, Fleischer Studios, produced for Paramount. Mae Questel provided Betty’s distinctive voice. By 1932 Betty, considered to be the first and only female animated screen star, had taken the country by storm. Betty starred in more than 100 cartoons, 90 of which are included in the official “Betty Boop” series which ended in 1939. Since then, Betty has appeared in dozens of hit movies, television specials and commercials. She was the first cartoon character to be profiled by A&E’s “Biography” series.
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Betty Boop’s character was actually based by animator Grim Natwick on vaudeville performer Helen Kane. Miss Kane wasn’t pleased… here’s what Wikipedia says about it… In 1930, Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick introduced a caricature of Helen Kane, with droopy dog ears and a squeaky singing voice, in the Talkartoons cartoon Dizzy Dishes.
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Betty Boop