It’s 1934, and performer Helen Kane sues cartoonist Max Fleischer and this studio. Kane asserts
that Fleischer appropriated her physical characteristics, her “baby vamp” performance
mannerisms, and squeaky “boop-boop” scat style for Fleischer’s character Betty Boop.
Fleischer holds his ground. At the trial, before the New York Supreme Court, he testifies that his
true inspiration for Betty Boop is, in fact, “Baby Esther” Jones, a Black Singer from Chicago. He’d
caught her popular act many times at Harlem’s Cotton Club in the 1920’s. Fleischer thought
Baby Esther’s stage persona, with her flapper looks, suggestive lyrics, and baby-talk scat,
epitomized the Jazz Age cartoon character he had in mind.
Helen Kanes’s case crumbles when her own manager testifies that he and Kane saw Baby
Esther’s act at the Cotton Club in 1928. Fleischer also produces film of Baby Esther on stage,
and of an early screen test of Baby Esther in full flapper regalia.
Only recently has the Trial of Betty Boop gained more attention than a footnote. Cultural
historians credit the Fleischer cartoons for keeping jazz music alive during the Depression.
Social activists see the then-famous trial as a precedent for acknowledging the work of
forgotten, uncredited Black artists. And, in a contemporary bit of historical irony, the Musical
Boop debuted on Broadway in early 2025, starring African-American rising star Jasmine Amy
Rogers as Betty Boop.
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