Was Betty Boop based on black singer Esther Jones?
The claim
This meme has circulated widely, claiming the popular cartoon character Betty Boop was “actually stolen from Cotton Club singer Esther Jones”, who “tried to win the rights back to her character until the day she died”.
The facts
The meme is misleading for several reasons. Firstly, the original Betty Boop character was an anthropomorphic French poodle, not a woman at all. [1]
The human form of Betty Boop was a caricature of white singer Helen Kane. [2] Before being called Betty Boop, the character was sometimes called “Nancy Lee” or “Nancy McGrew”, after the role of “Nan McGrew” played by Helen Kane in the movie “Dangerous Nan McGrew”. [3] This proves beyond doubt that the human form of Betty Boop was based on Helen Kane. [4]
Esther Jones never “tried to win the rights back to her character”. In fact it was Helen Kane who sued the Paramount Publix Corporation for US$250,000, for “deliberate caricature” and “unfair competition”, claiming they had appropriated her image. [5] Esther Jones never showed any interest in the character, and never made any claim on it.
The woman at the right of the photo in the meme is not Esther Jones, or Helen Kane. She is a Russian model known as Olya, in character as Betty Boop. The photo was taken in 2008 by Russian studio Retro Atelier. [6]
“The moral of the story is: stop sharing stuff without looking up context. Seriously, it’s annoying.” [7]
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[1] “One day, Dave Fleischer handed Grim a photograph of singer, Helen Kane and asked him to design a caricature. Fleischer had found a sound-alike, and planned to use her in the upcoming Talkartoon, “Dizzy Dishes”. Grim exaggerated Kane’s wide eyes and rosebud mouth, creating a slightly coarse, but strikingly original design. A few weeks later, Dave asked Grim to design a girlfriend for Bimbo to star as the “fair young maiden” in a cartoon adaptation of the popular song, ‘Barnacle Bill the Sailor’. Grim streamlined and refined his caricature of Kane for the part. But Dave Fleischer objected, insisting that since Bimbo was a dog, his girlfriend should also be a dog. Grim quickly sketched Betty Boop’s head on a four-legged canine body. He held up the drawing next to the pretty girl design, and asked, ‘Which would you rather have as your girlfriend? A girl? Or a dog?’ Dave laughed and agreed that the pretty girl was the right choice.”, “Exhibit: Grim Natwick In New York,” AnimationResources.Org — Serving the Online Animation Community, 19 January 2018, https://animationresources.org/biography-grim-natwick-in-new-york/.
[2] “ In interviews, Natwick has remarked that the original inspiration for Betty Boop was a song sheet he saw of a performer named Helen Kane. Kane had the same spit curls and had added the phrase “boop-boop-a-doop” to the popular song “I Want To Be Loved By You.”, John Cawley and Jim Korkis, Cartoon Superstars (Pioneer Books, 1990), 22.
[3] “The Betty character went through a process of development. In the early cartoons, she was identified as Nancy Lee or Nan McGrew. “, John Cawley and Jim Korkis, Cartoon Superstars (Pioneer Books, 1990), 22.
[4] “A staff animator drew the cartoon Betty Boop — too close in resemblance to Helen Kane, despite the long, droopy dog ears, to have been modeled on anyone else. Mae Questal provided the voice. The dog ears were quickly dropped and Betty Boop was made into a human. Evidently there was little objection to Betty’s interspecies romance, but Bimbo the dog lost his star status and was relegated to a supporting role as the series focused on Betty Boop. The all-human Betty Boop was clearly a line drawing of Helen Kane.”, Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, and Donald McNeilly, Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performances in America (Psychology Press, 2007), 584.
[5] “Court Dismisses $250,000 Suit of Helen Kane | BETTY BOOP Wiki | FANDOM Powered by Wikia,” n.d., http://bettyboop.wikia.com/wiki/Court_Dismisses_$250,000_Suit_of_Helen_Kane.
[6] “Betty Boop Was Not Black & This Photo Is Not Esther Jones,” Sinuous Magazine, 3 September 2014, http://www.sinuousmag.com/2014/09/photo-not-esther-jones-betty-boop-not-black/.
[7] “Betty Boop Was Not Black & This Photo Is Not Esther Jones,” Sinuous Magazine, 3 September 2014, http://www.sinuousmag.com/2014/09/photo-not-esther-jones-betty-boop-not-black/.