After this exhaustive review of the “boop-oop-a-doopery” history, the stenographer threw up his hands in despair and the testimony of meaningless sounds was stricken from the record. The attorneys spent the next several days dissecting each actress’ use of syllables, discerning the difference between “boop-oop-a-doop,” ‘boop-boop-a-doop,” “boop-oopy-doop,” “boo-boo-be-doo,” “poo-poopy-doo,” and even “poop-poopy-do-do.” This silly semantic argument became a source of uproarious laughter for the courtroom, with attorney arguing the differences between a boop-oop-doop” and a “poop-poopy-doop,” as well as the difference between boop-poop” and “poo-poop.” Members of the court, including the stenographer, were confused. Here is a particularly vivid moment of the real-life courtroom drama that leaps from the book’s pages: The Kane suit-along with far more expert detail than will appear in this article, which focuses primarily on vinyl records-is chronicled in Ray Pointer’s fascinating tome, The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer. The studio had already took the precaution of producing special recordings of the Kane songs by their own voice artists, such as Margie Hines. One singer whose records were not used for the cartoons were those of Helen Kane, who famously sued the Fleischers for appropriating her persona for Betty. (When the powers-that-be in the music business halted that practice, it led to live action appearances by the performers, bands and orchestras.) While the music, dialogue and sound effect for the shorts were being performed for the sound recording-in the Fleischer case, after the film was done-they would play the record as part of the session. According to The Fleischer Story by Leslie Cabarga, one of the many tasks of Fleischer brother Lou was to purchase records for use in Talkartoons. Indeed, records were integral components of the initial Talkartoons that arrived with the dawn of sound films. There is no shortage of 78 rpm records that were either heard in Betty Boop cartoons, came as a result of them, or inspired the character of Betty herself. (NOTE: Many popular songs and public domain tunes were also interpolated) Sing A Song of Sixpence (Mother Goose Land).The Woman in the Shoe (Mother Goose Land).Dum Dum Diddle Diddle (Mother Goose Land).Mother Goose Land Song (Mother Goose Land).Little Jackie Horner (Mother Goose Land).Sweeping’ the Clouds Away (Mother Goose Land).I Like to Go With Mother Goose (Mother Goose Land).Mother Goose Land (Sing You Sinners) (Mother Goose Land).James Infirmary – Cab Calloway (Snow-White) I Want to See My Step-Mama (Snow-White).I Know a Gal Named Betty Boop / How’m I Doin’? – Don Redman & His Orchestra.I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You – Louis Armstrong.Hello Beautiful – Maurice Chevalier & Mae Questel (Betty Boop’s Rise to Fame).I’m An Indian – Fanny Brice & Mae Questel (Betty Boop’s Rise to Fame).The Old Man of the Mountain / Hi-De-Hi – Cab Calloway.

Dialogue (including “Don’t Take My Boop-Oop-Doop Away”) – Mae Questel, Max Fleischer and Reporter (Betty Boop’s Rise to Fame).

Voices of Betty: Mae Questel, Margie Hines, Bonnie Poe, Little Ann Little, Kate Wright. Original Motion Picture Cartoon Soundtracks In a letter, he confronted PBS about the misinformation.She was the queen of the animated screen and her cartoons were filled with great music, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that she made her debut on LP records.

The real reason comes from the grandson of Max Fleischer, the co-founder of the studio. Historians refuted the PBS article, but the article and misinformation continued to spread.Ĭartoon Brew goes on to report that PBS admitted “that it did not follow established protocol to retract the story in a timely manner since the PBS Digital team that produced the piece believed it to be “promotional copy, not journalism.”

The news site noted how PBS’s status as a trusted source led to the false story “spreading like wildfire.” PBS took six years to retract the article Jones’s involvement led to the false claim that Betty Boop was based on the performer.Ĭartoon Brew confirmed that “PBS…has issued an in-depth mea culpa acknowledging that they misled the public by falsely claiming that the Fleischer Studios character Betty Boop was based on a Black child performer named Esther Jones.” The 'real' Betty Boop was a black singer from Harlem named Esther Jones /LvHlTb7PQh- BUST Magazine October 17, 2017

The original betty boop