Furthermore, they said, many people also believed the design of Betty Boop was inspired by Hollywood It Girl Clara Bow. It was determined that Helen didn’t have exclusivity to the baby-styled singing voice or the “Boop-Oop-A-Doop” line – Fleischer’s lawyers were able to insinuate that Helen actually took both of these elements from a singer she saw at the Cotton Club who went by the name Baby Esther. Though the evidence was certainly stacked against Fleischer and his company, the court ruled in their favor. In the cartoon “The Bum Bandit,” the studio Betty Boop portrayed Dangerous Nan McGrew, a role Helen originated the previous year. Not only did they look similar, Helen was famous in the ‘20s as “The Boop-Oop-A-Doop Girl,” which you almost certainly recognize today as Betty’s tagline, not Helen Kane’s. And you can be sure that the actresses themselves noticed – Helen Kane sued Max Fleischer and Paramount for $250,000 for blatantly using her likeness without her permission. It didn’t take long for Betty to become more popular than her boyfriend (gee… wonder why?), and suddenly, Bimbo was out of the picture and Betty was front-and-center.Īs Betty became more popular, some people began to notice a striking resemblance between the cartoon and a couple of famous actresses, most notably Helen Kane (pictured) and Clara Bow.
If you have a spare six minutes, check it out. Her first recognizable appearance as Betty (Bimbo had a female companion in earlier cartoons but in no way did she resemble Betty Boop) was in 1930’s “Dizzy Dishes.” Though she looks pretty familiar, the long dog ears are a dead giveaway that she hadn’t reached her final form yet. Yep – back in 1930, Betty was less person and more poodle (and not nearly as cute). Boop was conceived of as a girlfriend for Bimbo, a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios, a big player in the era of silent cartoons. She’s gone through a lot of changes over the years – as in, she’s completely changed species. Don’t let her fool you: she may look pretty good (OK, amazing) for her age, but Betty Boop is actually 81 years old today.
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