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The Original Betty Boop


Helen Kane (August 4, 1903 – September 26, 1966) was an American popular singer, best known for her "boop-boop-a-doop" trademark and her signature song, "I Wanna Be Loved By You". Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick used Kane as the model for his studio's most famous creation, Betty Boop.




By the time she was 15, Helen was onstage professionally, touring the Orpheum Circuit with the Marx Brothers. Helen spent the early 1920s trouping in vaudeville as a singer, and kickline dancer with a theater engagement called the 'All Jazz Revue.'



In the mid-1920s Helen married department store buyer Joseph Kane and took his last name professionally. By 1928 the marriage had ended in divorce.



Kane's first performance at the Paramount Theater in Times Square proved to be her defining moment and career's launching point. Kane was singing the popular song That’s My Weakness Now, when she interpolated the scat lyrics “boop-boop-a-doop.” The rather odd gamble paid off, resonating with flapper culture and, four days later, Helen Kane’s name went up in lights. Overnight, the world changed for Helen. Kane’s agent Harry Besney got her $5,500 a week in Oscar Hammerstein’s 1928 show Good Boy (where she introduced the hit, I Want to Be Loved By You).



As she took on the status of a singing sensation, there were Helen Kane dolls and Helen Kane look-alike contests, appearances on radio and in nightclubs. In late 1928 and early 1929 this cult following had reached its peak. Helen Kane's height (about 5 feet tall) and slightly plump figure attracted attention and fans. Her round face with its huge brown eyes was topped by black, curly hair; her voice was a baby squeak with a distinct Bronx accent. Audiences found Helen adorable.



In mid-1929, Paramount Pictures signed Helen to make a series of musicals, and put her on a salary of $8,000 a year.



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. "Betty Boop", as the character was later dubbed, soon became popular and the star of her own cartoons. In 1932, she was changed into a human from a dog, her long ears turning into hoop earrings.



In 1932, Kane filed an unsuccessful $250,000 suit against Paramount and Max Fleischer, charging unfair competition and wrongful appropriation in the Betty Boop cartoons. The trial opened in April 1934 with Helen Kane and Betty Boop films being screened by Judge McGoldrick (no jury was called). Betty Boop voice-over talent Mae Questel, Margy Hines, and Bonnie Poe were brought in to testify. McGoldrick ruled against Helen in 1934, claiming that Kane's testimony could not prove that her singing style was unique or not an imitation itself (a little-known black singer known as 'Baby Esther' was cited by the defence as "booping" in song).



With the hardships of the Great Depression biting, the flamboyant world of the flapper was over, and Kane's style began to date rapidly. After 1931 she lost the favour of the movie makers, who chose other singers for their films. She appeared in a stage production called Shady Lady in 1933, and made appearances at various nightclubs and theatres during the 1930s.



In 1950, she dubbed an 18-year-old Debbie Reynolds who performed "I Wanna Be Loved By You" in the MGM musical biopic of songwriting duo Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby: Three Little Words. She did not appear in the film's credits.



She appeared in several TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s, principally Toast of the Town (later episodes known as The Ed Sullivan Show).



Kane battled breast cancer for more than ten years. She died of the disease in Jackson Heights, Queens, on September 26, 1966. Helen Kane is buried in Long Island National Cemetery.



















Source: Wikipedia

You can download most of her more famous songs from here.