Born August 4, 1904, Helen Kane sang and acted on Broadway and in films of the 1920s and ‘30s. She sometimes included the phrase “boop-oop-a-doop” in hit songs like “I Wanna Be Loved by You.” Helen’s singing style and appearance inspired the cartoon character Betty Boop, resulting in an unsuccessful lawsuit by her.
The infamous 1932 legal battle saw Kane sue Fleischer Studios for $250,000, claiming they had deliberately stolen her unique, baby-voiced persona and signature scat catchphrase to create the cartoon icon Betty Boop. The trial backfired spectacularly when the defense produced a film clip of a jazz singer named Esther Jones—known as “Baby Esther”—who had been performing the exact same “boop-dedoop” vocal style at the Cotton Club long before Kane adopted it. The judge ruled against Kane, concluding that her performance style was not a unique personal invention, but rather a popularized adaptation of early jazz scatting.
Image by E.R. Richee via Wikimedia Commons, copyright not renewed public domain in the US.
