BABY ESTER'S BOOP OOP A DOOP

BABY ESTER  and BETTY BOOP

No. Elvis was not the first person to rip off black music. Lot's of white people have done that before and since. 

But a lot of people don't know that Ester Jones known as "Baby Ester" in the Cotton Club was the original Betty Boop. Here is a little snippet of Baby Ester (Ester Jones) singing:

There are even cartoon some images of Black Betty Boop in some old cartoons. Here is a few seconds of Black Betty Boop in "Popeye."  

But how did Betty Boop get bleached white, you ask?

Ester was famous in the Cotton Club for singing "Boop Oop A Doop" Helen Kane, the white woman who became famous as "Betty Boop" went to the Cotton Club with her manager one night. Kane began singing "Boop Oop A Doop" soon after and became famous for it.

Eventually Kane sued a huge film producer named Max Fleischer for stealing HER image in the creation of the "Betty Boop" charactere. Her manager, acting as a witness during the lawsuit, told the court exactly where Kane got her act.

Kane's manager didn't "confess" to getting the act from Baby Ester either. He just stated it as fact (listen to video at the end).  It was simple for white folks to do this back then.

Kane considered herself as owning the image and incorporating the scatting into her act after taking it from a black woman.  And Kane could do this because black people had no rights white people had to respect in the 1920s and 30s.

But I consider Betty Boop as taken back to black.

COME HALLOWEEN
I EXPECT TO SEE A FEW BLACK BETTY BOOPS OUT THERE

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KNOW YOUR HISTORY
SHORT VIDEO ON "THE REAL BETTY BOOP"