Helen Kane - The Original Boop Oop a Doop Girl

Helen Kane - The original Boop Oop A Doop Girl

Helen Kane - The original Boop Oop A Doop Girl

Helen Kane was commonly called the "Boop Oop a Doop Girl". Betty Boop's high baby voice and spit curls, were in imitation of singer Helen Kane.

• Born: Aug 04, 1903 in Bronx, New York City, New York
• Died: Sep 26, 1966
• Occupation: Actor · Active: 1920s-'30s
• Major Genres: Musical, Comedy
• Career Highlights: Heads Up, Nothing But the Truth, Sweetie
• First Major Screen Credit: Nothing But the Truth (1929)

Helen Kane publicity photograpoh (autographed)

Her first starring role was in "Betty Coed" (1931), which also marked the first time the name Betty was connected with the character.

Like many performers burdened with one overwhelming association, Kane's career was actually much more diverse. She was involved with show business for much of her life, not only as a singer but also as an actress in the early-'30s Hollywood films and a costume designer as well.

Helen Kane & Betty Boop comparison

Helen Kane posing as Betty Boop in sepia	Betty Boop head winking

Kane was a Bronx gal whose real name was Helen Schroeder. Some mildly amusing siblings known as the Marx Brothers were the ones who got her started in show business! She was 17 at the time. She began appearing in Broadway musicals in 1927, and a 1928 show entitled "Good Boy" was the source of the "boop-boop-be-doop," a musical request entitled "I Wanna Be Loved by You" specifically.

An aspect of her approach to the song, delivering it in a toddler's voice, in turn became a stylistic trademark of some of the so-called "flapper" tuneage created by singers such as Kane and Annette Hanshaw.

Further publicity shots of Helen Kane

Photograph of Helen kane with hat
Helen Kane posing

The character of Betty Boop evolved out of all this while Kane was a contract player at the Paramount studio, also the home of animation genius Max Fleischer. It wasn't he who first drew the character, however. The original Animator, the pleasant-sounding Grim Natwick supposedly created Betty Boop by combining attributes of Kane and a French poodle!

In a 1950 film biography of "I Want to Be Loved by You" songwriters Kalmar & Ruby, the part of Kane was played by none other than Debbie Reynolds, but it is actually Kane's voice providing the "boop-boop-be-doop".

But what happened with Betty Boop and Helen Kane? Well, it was not the singer who actually worked the voice of the flapper-cartoon heroine. The "Boop-scoop", so to speak, was provided by a performer named Mae Questel, first-place winner in a contest to imitate the sound of Helen Kane's voice.