Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop! Little Ann Little
Little Ann Little (88 Bay 17th Street Brooklyn), called as witness in behalf of the defendant Paramount Publix Corporation, being first duly sworn, testifies.
Miss Little, you are known professionally Little Ann Little, is that right?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
May I ask you, with apologies, how old are you?
Little Ann Little: "24."
What is your business or occupation?
Little Ann Little: "Performer."
By performer, do you mean a professional actress?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
For how long has that been your occupation?
Little Ann Little: "About nine years."
Where did you start in that occupation?
Little Ann Little: "Well, I was the baby in the Greenwich Village Follies."
You were a member of the Greenwich Village Follies Company?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Where did that company give public performances Of the Greenwich Village Follies?
Little Ann Little: "We went to Chicago."
What year was that?
Little Ann Little: "That was in 1925. We went from New York to Buffalo and across, west to Chicago, and around Chicago, and then back to New York."
What was your next professional engagement after you left the Greenwich Village Follies?
Little Ann Little: "I did a sister act in Jolly Juniors."
Was that a musical comedy?
Little Ann Little: "It was a six people act."
When you say that you did a sister act, you mean that you played with your sister?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir."
Is she in court?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Will you describe what you did at the public performances in this act?
Little Ann Little: "I sang and danced and I sang cute baby songs and did breaks at the music stops."
Will you describe your breaks?
Little Ann Little: "Well, some of them were "Ba-Dut-N-Do-Do" and "Bo-De-O-Do" and "What-Dot-De-Da," and "Chada-Chada," and "Ta-Da-Ta-Da."
You said that you used these sounds in the breaks, will you explain what you mean by the breaks?
Little Ann Little: "The music would stop and my sister and I would say those little terms."
Ann is asked the year when she started using those breaks in her act, she says 1926 when she worked with the Jolly Juniors.
For how long did you work with your sister?
Little Ann Little: "I worked with her four years."
Up to what year?
Little Ann Little: "1928, the beginning of 1928, yes. That is right 1926, 1927, 1928, and the beginning of 1928 she got married, and I worked with her up to then."
Until her marriage?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
After her sister's marriage, Ann became a singer and dancer on the vaudeville stage and worked at various R.K.O. theatres in New York.
Were the songs that you sang and your manner of singing them after 1928 similar to those you have described?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Were you ever in a Helen Kane contest?
Little Ann Little: "No."
When did you start work for the Fleischer Studios people?
Little Ann Little: "March, 1933."
You were one of the girls whose voice was recorded for the Betty Boop cartoons?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
And after you were engaged by the Fleischer Studios, Inc., did you continue your professional work on the stage."
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
And you have so continued your professional work down to this very day?"
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir."
Miss Little, you say that you were employed by the Fleischer Studios, Inc., in these cartoons, these Betty Boop cartoons, since 1933?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
And you have been making professional appearances in theatres in 1933 and 1934?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Will you tell us the names of these theatres and the cities and states in which they are located?
Little Ann Little: "In New York City, the Grand Opera House, Brooklyn, the Tivoli Theatre, in Ossining, the Cameo Theatre, and in Bayonne, the Opera House, I could not offhand give you the names of the theatres, but by looking through this I could tell you more, may I read them?"
Yes, you may look at this, and if that will help you to refresh your recollection, tell us the names of the theatres in which you appeared.
Little Ann Little: "Maryland Theatre of Cumberland, Maryland Granada Theatre in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania Liverty Theatre in Zanesbille, Ohio, Palace Theatre of Lancaster, Ohio, Midland Theatre in Newark, Ohio, Broadview Theatre in Cleveland Ohio, Palace Theatre in Ashland, Ohio, and State Theatre at Uricks ville, Ohio, Folly Theatre in Brooklyn, New York and Hillsgrove Country Club in Providence, Rhode Island, and the Embassy Theatre in Reading, Pennsylvania. I do not remember the names of the theatres in Harrisburg."
In these theatres that you have named after looking at these various papers, that you looked at to refresh your recollection, did you appear in these theatres doing a single act by yourself, or in company with some other person?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, a girl, dancing with me."
What was her name?
Little Ann Little: "Pauline Comanor."
Will you please describe the act that you did and give a public performance at these theatres that you have named, with Miss Pauline Comanor?
Little Ann Little: "Miss Comanor drew Betty Boop on the stage, and I showed how cartoons were made, and how I sing for Betty in the movies, with film."
Did Miss Comanor draw?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
What did she draw?
Little Ann Little: "She drew full-sized drawings of Betty Boop while I posed, and she did other cartoons, very, very fast."
Did you sing?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Are you married, Miss Little?
Little Ann Little: "No."
What is your real name?
Little Ann Little: "A. Ann Little."
What was the name under which you were born?
Little Ann Little: "Ann Belle Little."
That is, your father and mother's name is Little?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir."
Where were you born?
Little Ann Little: "New York City."
When were you born?
Little Ann Little: "March 1st, 1910."
Anybody tell you to talk in a high pitch voice here?
Little Ann Little: "No, sir."
When did you start appearing as Betty Boop in your act in 1933 and 1934?"
Little Ann Little: "About September, 1933."
You appeared as the original Betty Boop?
Little Ann Little: "Can I change it, it was about July, 1933."
You appeared as the original Betty Boop, is that right?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You are really not the original Betty Boop?
Mr. Phillips: "Objected to."
You were first fired by Fleischer and to sing these Betty Boop cartoons when?
Little Ann Little: "March, 1933."
Do you know when the Betty Boop cartoons were first displayed, do you know of your own knowledge?
Little Ann Little: "No."
Do you know that before you, three girls had sung for the Betty Boop character?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Do you know that the Betty Boop cartoons were first put out in 1930?
Little Ann Little: "I am not sure just when."
You knew that it was quite a long time before you were first employed by Fleischer, didn't you?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir."
When you were on the road you also had Betty Boop cartoon contests?
Little Ann Little: "No."
Did you have amateur contests?
Little Ann Little: "With this act?"
Yes.
Little Ann Little: "Only in one theatre."
Where was this Betty Boop amateur content?
Little Ann Little: "In the Maryland Theatre, Cumberland."
Have you seen Miss Kane conducting an amateur Betty Boop contest?
(Objected to. Sustained. Exception.)
Did you know in 1933 that Mae Questel was one of your predecessors in this Betty Boop scene?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You knew that she had won one of the "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" contests?
(Objected to. Sustained. Exception.)
Did you know before this contest that one Bonnie Poe had sung?
Little Ann Little: "No."
You did not know that at all?
Little Ann Little: "No."
You only knew about Mae Questel?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You appeared as Betty Boop in person, is that right?
Little Ann Little: "Right."
As the original Betty Boop girl?
Little Ann Little: "Not always."
In most instances the original Betty Boop girl?
Little Ann Little: "Not always."
In a number of instances?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Is that correct?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You say that it was about July, 1933, that you went on the road to appear as the original Betty Boop girl in person, is that correct?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Before that under what style did you go on the road?"
Little Ann Little: "Well, I did comedy and sang personality."
Were you known by any particular identity similar to Betty Boop in person?
Little Ann Little: "Just Little Ann Little."
For instance, what song did you sing in July, 1933, when you were in the theatres.
Little Ann Little: "Quite a number of them."
Give me one that you sang most often?
Little Ann Little: "I sang them all the same amount of times."
Every one?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Which one did you sing first?
Little Ann Little: "The first one, 'Don't Take My Boop-Boop-a-Doop Away'."
What was the second one you sang?
Little Ann Little: "You'd Be Surprised."
What was the third one?
Little Ann Little: "Here We Are."
Did you ever sing "Do Something"?
Little Ann Little: "No, not in an act."
Did you sing it before July, 1933, act in a theatre?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You put a lot of "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" in, in 1933 and 1934?
Little Ann Little: "I don't understand what you mean."
I am trying to make it clear, you are now 24 years of age.
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
And you have heard the expression, "Boop-Boop-a-Doop", haven't you?
Little Ann Little: "Sure."
Did you use that expression in July, 1933, when you sang as Betty Boop in person.
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Did you sing it all through the end of 1933, when you appeared as Betty Boop in person?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Ann then explains how she stood there while Pauline Comanor drew her and she sang while being drawn.
I show you from this book, that you were looking at, merely this picture, Betty Boop. Do you notice it?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
That is a correct picture of Betty Boop in cartoons, isn't it?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Is that the way you were pictured in this cartoon by the girl there?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Little Betty Boop?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
And you were talking in a high pitch of voice, baby voice?
Little Ann Little: "I talk that way always."
You talk that way at home too?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir, always."
Did you ever hear Miss Kane sing, Miss Little?
Little Ann Little: "In pictures?"
In any place?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Where did you hear Miss Kane first?
Little Ann Little: "In a picture."
What picture?
Little Ann Little: "I don't remember the name of the picture."
Did you ever see her in person?
Little Ann Little: "On the stage?"
Yes.
Little Ann Little: "No."
Did you ever see her in person?
Little Ann Little: "No, I was out of town."
Always out of town?
Little Ann Little: "Well, when she appeared in New York I was out of town and when she went in pictures.."
Where were you in 1928?
Little Ann Little: "In 1928?"
Yes.
Little Ann Little: "Well, I don't know just where I was, I was always working."
Did you ever listen to records, Miss Little?
Little Ann Little: "I have heard some of her records."
How many pictures of her have you seen?
Little Ann Little: "Moving pictures? Of Helen Kane in it?"
Yes, three or four?
Little Ann Little: "About two or three."
Did you hear about 10 records of hers, Victor records?
Little Ann Little: "No."
About eight?
Little Ann Little: "I did not hear many of her records."
Would you say four or five?"
Little Ann Little: "I don't think I heard that many of her records."
How many did you hear, would you say?
Little Ann Little: "Maybe one or two?"
Where did you hear them?
Little Ann Little: "I don't know just where I heard them."
You don't know?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, I do know..."
In these appearances where you appeared as the original Betty Boop, did you first secure the consent of Mr. Fleischer?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir."
Who was your manager in your appearances as the original Betty Boop, Mr. Fleischer?
Little Ann Little: "Yes, sir."
Who made arrangements for the advertising of yours, Mr. Fleischer? Yes or no?
Little Ann Little: "I have to say who, didn't you ask who? I cannot say yes or no when you said who."
Did Mr. Fleischer make arrangements for that advertisement?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You understand when I talk of Mr. Fleischer I am talking of Mr. Max Fleischer?
Little Ann Little: "Fleischer Studios, I guess it is Mr. Fleischer, or it may have been somebody else."
We were speaking of Mr. Fleischer, and of course, I mean the Fleischer Studios.
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
When you appeared upon the stage, did you wear a costume in abbreviated form, similar to the costume that Betty Boop wears?
Little Ann Little: "Exactly like Betty Boop wears."
Miss Little, you first met the Fleischer Studios some time in 1933, in July was it?
Little Ann Little: "March, 1933."
You had not known Mr. Fleischer before that, had you?
Little Ann Little: "No."
What was the last picture of the Betty Boop cartoon wherein you sang for the character Betty Boop?
Little Ann Little: "The last picture?"
Yes.
Little Ann Little: "Betty Boop's Big Boss."
It was not until June, 1933, that you went on the radio as the girl who sings Betty Boop, is that right?
Little Ann Little: "That is right."
How much are you being paid to come here, Miss Little?
Little Ann Little: "I do not get paid."
When did you first start to have your hair combed the way that you have it now?
Little Ann Little: "In 1929, after my sister got married."
You notice the picture of "Betty Boop Cartoons"?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
You notice that language on the stage?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Do you see this sign dangling from the canopy, or stage, "Betty Boop in Cartoons, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday" "Betty Boop, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday"?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."
Is that the kind of advertisement that was used in different canopies throughout the cities that you appeared?
Little Ann Little: "Yes."