Betty Boop's voice

[bronwynavery]

I tried to find the answer to this question while on the History page. I went through all the topics and could not successfully find the name(s) of the person(s) who did/does the voice for Betty Boop. Can anybody resolve this for me? Thanks in advance for any help you can give.:)

[BBooper]

i believe it was mae questal!? might of spelt it wrong!

BBooper
xxx

[Bikerbettyboop]

Yep.. she is one of the voices for Betty Boop! I believe Helen Kane was also a voice for her too.

[bettyboopfan]

When I read this post I was thinking Helen Kane but wasn't sure.

[Bikerbettyboop]

I've seen some Helen Kane music cd's and some of the songs are Betty Boop songs.

[bettyboopfan]

I have seen the same and I guess that is why I was thinking her name.

[Bikerbettyboop]

Yep she was one of the Betty Boop voices.

[bettyboopfan]

Wonderful voice!

[Betty Boop.7]

Definatley Helen Kane!

[The Moocher]

Definatley Helen Kane!

Sorry - I have to disagree.

Helen Kane sued Paramount and Max Fleisher in 1932 because she claimed, with some justification, that the Betty Boop character and boop-oop-a-doop were direct steals from her stage act. I've discussed this at length in the Betty Boop Cartoons thread in the Chit Chat Lounge.

Helen would have been the last person in the world to voice Betty Boop - even though their voices were almost identical.

Mae Questel, Little Ann Little and Margie Hines voiced Betty. There were others, but these were the main three.

Mooch

[Bikerbettyboop]

Well I guess I am wrong then but I have found many websites that claim Helen Kane sang Betty Boop songs:

When animator Max Fleischer heard one of Questel's performances, he signed her to take over the squeaky voice of Betty Boop. The sound was actually modeled on the voice of another actress, Helen Kane, who created a sensation on Broadway in 1928 with a "boop-boop-a-doop" rendition of the hit song "I Wanna Be Loved by You."

I got this from this website: http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story.mpl/content/chronicle/ae/movies/deaths/0108questel.html

and there are many others with similar statements... maybe I am confused... did Helen Kane just sing with a Betty Boop style in her performances and so I thought she actually provided a voice for Betty Boop?

[bettyboopfan]

Hmmm.....now I am confused!

I guess she just sang like BB......very confusing! :rolleyes:

[The Moocher]

I guess she just sang like BB......very confusing! :rolleyes:

The other way round. Betty Boop sung like Helen Kane!

Helen was very popular between 1928 and 1930, so when Max Fleischer was looking for a model for a new "sexy female character" to be Bimbo's girlfriend he stole Helen's act, her voice, her appearance, and even her catch phrase "boop-oop-a-doop." Helen Kane was the "boop-oop-a-doop girl."

Mae Questel was a brilliant mimic and could copy Helen's voice exactly. Actually, Mae's natural voice was very like Helen's.

Mae was, however, a better singer. The songs sounded better when Betty Boop did them.

When Betty was a minor character Helen didn't seem to mind. When Betty got popular, Paramount took control (mid 1932) and announced that their new star, Betty Boop, was the "boop-oop-a-doop girl." Helen Kane was actually under contract with Paramount at the time, which made this even nastier.

Helen sued Paramount and Fleischer. The case went on until 1934. The court ruled that other artists had used the phrase "boop-oop-a-doop" and that it was possible that both Betty and Helen had based their acts on Clara Bow, the "it" girl. There was also an undisclosed out-of-court payment.

None of this was the fault of Betty, who was, after all, only a cartoon character. However, even a brief comparison of Helen and Betty shows any "reasonable" analyst that Fleischer had a case to answer. The similarities are overwhelming.

Max Fleischer wasn't a nice man. He underpaid his animators and tried not to pay the musicians he used at all. Sometimes he was downright shady. We can all love Betty, but we don't have to love Max.

He was, however, a true genius.

So, it is somewhat unlikely that Helen Kane would wander into a Fleischer studio and voice her deadly rival, Betty Boop. If she had tried, Max wouldn't have let her through the door.

Betty, on the other hand, could happily imitate Helen Kane in Stopping the Show (1932). Betty's imitation sounded better than the original, and Helen eventually managed to get the clip cut out of the cartoon.

There are no "Betty Boop Songs." Betty sung the popular songs of the day and so did Helen. As their voices and styles were the same, they tended to sing the same songs in the same manner. If Betty made a song popular, then Helen could and would cover it, and vice versa.

IMHO, there is no doubt that Max Fleisher stole Helen Kane's act and catchphrase.

IMHO Betty was a lot more talented than Helen. If it hadn't been for Betty Boop, nobody today would have heard of Helen Kane.

A long post, but I hope it explains what happened.

Mooch

[bettyboopfan]

Thanks so much for explaining, Mooch!

[BBooper]

i've read about Hlen Kane sueing Fleischer Studios beacause of the Bop-Oop-A-Doop thing before, but i wasn't sure, thanks for the info mooch!

BBooper
xxx

[LilMizNaughty25]

"I wanna be Loved by you" was sung by Marilyn Monroe and here are the words. If you do already know them like i do!!!!!!!!!

I wanna be loved by you, just you,
And nobody else but you,
I wanna be loved by you, alone!
Boop-boop-de-boop!

I wanna be kissed by you, just you,
Nobody else but you,
I wanna be kissed by you, alone!

I couldn't aspire,
To anything higher,
Than, to feel the desire,
To make you my own!
Ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-doodly-dum-boo

I wanna be loved by you, just you,
And nobody else but you,
I wanna be loved by you, alone!

I couldn't aspire,
To anything higher,
Than to feel the desire,
To make you my own,
Ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-doodly-dum-boo!

I wanna be loved by you, just you,
Nobody else but you,
I wanna be loved by you,
ba-deedly-deedly-deedly-dum-ba-boop-bee-doop

Boop-boop-a-doop!

<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZSXXXXXX43US' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_5_11v.gif' alt='3 More Kisses' border=0></a> Enjoy <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZSXXXXXX43US' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_5_11v.gif' alt='3 More Kisses' border=0></a>

[LilMizNaughty25]

Sorry the was surrpose to be <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZSXXXXXX43US' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_5_11v.gif' alt='3 More Kisses' border=0></a>kisses<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZSXXXXXX43US' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/11/11_5_11v.gif' alt='3 More Kisses' border=0></a>

[LilMizNaughty25]

Is anyones else Smiley Central not working!!!!!!!!

[BBooper]

the smilies only work in the chit chat lounge sorry!

BBooper
xxx

[LilMizNaughty25]

Ok that is why isn't work thank for telling me!!!!!!!!

[Bikerbettyboop]

Thanks for posting the words to the song... I love that song!

[bettyboopfan]

A great song!

[The Moocher]

To be pedantic, Marlyn Monroe never sang "boop-boop-be-doop." That was Helen Kane. Betty Boop may have sung the song with these words in Stopping the Show (1932), but her Helen Kane impersonation has been cut from the cartoon for legal reasons, so we'll probably never know.

Marlyn sang:
"I wanna be loved by you
Just you and nobody else but you
I wanna be loved by you alone
pooh pooh bee doo!"

The original lyrics were written by Bert Kalmar for the show Good Boy (1928). They are:
"I wanna be loved by you, just you, and nobody else but you,
I wanna be loved by you aloone, poo poo pee doo."

So Monroe was a lot nearer the original lyrics than Kane.

Both the Frank Sinatra and Sinead O'Connor versions use the original lyrics.

Mooch

[Bikerbettyboop]

well I'll be .. I never realized that info before about Marilyn's version and Frank and Sinead's version of the song..... thanks for the info Mooch!

[bettyboopfan]

I never knew!
Thanks so much, Mooch!