{"id":7166,"date":"2025-01-21T18:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T23:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/?p=7166"},"modified":"2025-01-21T18:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T23:06:12","slug":"boop-oop-a-doop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/2025\/01\/21\/boop-oop-a-doop\/","title":{"rendered":"Boop Oop a Doop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
Image Title: Konica Minola Digital Camera*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

*Image Title is Konica Minolta Digital Camera<\/a> but from the tags it is also named the Rosa<\/em>\u00a0‘Betty Boop’ and is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the \u201cBoop Oop a Doop\u201d song stuck in my head for a few days \u2013 the one from Betty Boop. I\u2019ve only seen the cartoon a few times, but it is certainly catchy. There is this one version on YouTube<\/a>, and then I thought it would be a fun bit of audio for this assignment. Helen Kane sang the linked YouTube version, but I noticed many comments referred to an \u201cEsther Jones.\u201d I didn\u2019t think too much of it then and continued my search for a song for the assignment. The search Betty Boop<\/em> on Internet Archive<\/a> guided my journey, and I found the results \u201cMae Questel, the voice of Betty Boop\u201d and then the track \u201cDon\u2019t Take my Boop Oop E Doop Away.\u201d This was the song. After retrieving the song, I thought, huh, that\u2019s strange \u2013 Mae Questel is another name. My history teacher senses tingled, and it had been a while since I did a Wiki deep dive, so I searched for Betty Boop <\/em>on Wikipedia, and sure enough \u2013 Mae Questel was a Jewish actress who played Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. So that was one name down \u2013 Who, then, was Helen Kane?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Betty Boop Wiki explained who the other voice actresses were, and further scrolling led me to a reference about the Helen Kane Lawsuit. Helen Kane sued Fleischer Studios and Paramount in 1932 for allegedly copying her distinctive \u201cbaby\u201d singing style to create Betty Boop. Another handy, dandy Wikipedia search later for \u201cBaby Esther\u201d led me to the page of Esther Lee Jones \u2013 the same Esther Jones of the YouTube comments from earlier. Baby Esther was an African American child singer and entertainer in the late 1920s known for using a distinctive \u201cbaby\u201d or \u201cboop-oop-a-doop\u201d vocal style. During Helen Kane\u2019s infringement lawsuit against Fleischer Studios over Betty Boop, evidence showed that Baby Esther<\/a> had performed this style earlier and, in fact, was the inspiration for both Fleischer\u2019s Betty Boop and Kane\u2019s flapper persona, weakening Kane\u2019s claim that she originated it. This testimony helped lead to the dismissal of Kane\u2019s case in 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is little known about Esther Jones; unfortunately, there are no recordings of her songs or voice. What a piece of history that would have been\u2014the first Betty Boop on record. But alas, we live in this timeline. And there was my little wormhole, peaking back through history over an unfamiliar topic. As for the rose pictured, Betty Boop has her own flower as well, a floribunda\u00a0rose, to be specific, which was produced by rose grower Tom Carruth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baby Esther. (2025, January 9). In Wikipedia<\/em>. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Baby_Esther<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betty Boop. (2025, January 19). In\u00a0Wikipedia<\/em>. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Betty_Boop<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Kane. (2025, January 12). In\u00a0Wikipedia<\/em>. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Helen_Kane<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mae Questel. (2024, December 27). In Wikipedia<\/em>. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mae_Questel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosa ‘Betty Boop’. (2024, January 22). In\u00a0Wikipedia<\/em>. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rosa_%27Betty_Boop%27<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Image Title is Konica Minolta Digital Camera but from the tags it is also named the Rosa\u00a0‘Betty Boop’ and is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0 I had the \u201cBoop Oop a Doop\u201d song stuck in my head for a few days \u2013...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,72,2],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-7166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2025","category-spring-2025-student","category-student","tag-cc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7166"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7173,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166\/revisions\/7173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torch.cci.fsu.edu\/~lis5313\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}