Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Margie Hines
Margie Hines, 75 North Bayview Avenue, Freeport, Long Island. Called on witness in behalf of the defendant Paramount Publix Corporation.
Will you pardon me, Miss Hines how old are you?
Margie Hines: "21."
What is your business or occupation?
Margie Hines: "I am an actress."
For how long?
Margie Hines: "About four and a half years."
Were you also in the Helen Kane contest?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
At what theatre?
Margie Hines: "At the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn."
Is that an R.K.O. theatre, if you know?
Margie Hines: "Yes, sir."
Do you recall the date?
Margie Hines: "No, sir. I don't remember."
Do you recall the year?
Margie Hines: "It must have been in 1929, I believe."
Did you win the contest at the Albee Theatre?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
What did you receive as a prize?
Margie Hines: "$25."
Did you also receive a week's professional appearance?
Margie Hines: "Not at that theatre, but another theatre."
At what theatre?
Margie Hines: "At the Kenmore Theatre in Brooklyn."
Did you appear professionally at the Kenmore Theatre in Brooklyn?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
What songs did you sing in the Helen Kane contest?
Margie Hines: "'Do Something'."
Did you ever sing that song before you sang it in the Helen Kane contest?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
When and where?
Margie Hines: "I sang it at a radio station in Jamaica, WNYJ."
At the time that you sang that over the radio that you told us about, had you ever seen or heard Miss Kane sing?
Margie Hines: "No sir, I had not."
You were employed by the Fleischer Studios, Inc., to have your voice recorded for the Betty Boop cartoons?
Margie Hines: "Yes, sir."
How long had you been so employed?
Margie Hines: "Since May, I think 1930, but I am not sure of the date."
Did you sing in your own voice of did you use an unnatural voice?
Margie Hines: "I sang in my own baby voice."
Mr. Weltz: "I move to strike out the answer."
The Court: "Granted."
Margie Hines: "I sang in my own voice."
Do you know what the sounds "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" or similar sounds are called in theatrical business.
The Court: "The Court will hear the answer, it is anxious to know."
Mr. Weltz: "Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial."
The Court: "Information for the Court."
Margie Hines: "I call it a lick."
Have you heard the expression "off beat rhythm"?
Margie Hines: "Yes, I have."
Did you do licks or off beat rhythm - I will withdraw that. When did you first do the licks or off beat rhythms?
Margie Hines: "When I sang on the radio in Jamaica."
I think you said that was before you ever saw or heard Helen Kane.
Margie Hines: "That is right."
Miss Hines, did you appear in a television broadcast any time?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
When was that?
Margie Hines: "At the Madison Square Garden at the Radio Show. I believe it was 1931, but I am not sure of the date."
Was there an audience present in Madison Square Garden when you appeared there in connection with your television broadcast?
Margie Hines: "I could not see the audience but they said the Garden was filled."
Max Fleischer is asked to the stand.
Mr. Fleischer, were you at the Madison Square Garden, New York City, on the evening of September 25th, 1931?
Max Fleischer: "Yes."
Where were you, in what portion of the building were you?
Max Fleischer: "I was on the lower level."
Were there any people in the area?
Max Fleischer: "Yes."
Were they visible to you?
Max Fleischer: "Yes."
Did you see them?
Max Fleischer: "Yes, sir."
Will you state what you did there and what Miss Hines did there that night?
Max Fleischer: "We broadcast the face of Miss Hines and also a cartoon of Betty Boop, which I drew before the television apparatus."
Did you speak over the microphone?
Max Fleischer: "Yes."
Did you make any announcement?
Max Fleischer: "Yes."
Will you state what that announcement was that you made before that audience over the microphone?
Max Fleischer: "As nearly as I can remember, I said 'I will now draw a picture of Betty Boop in the microphone', and then proceeded to draw that before the television apparatus, and then I said, 'I will introduce to you the voice behind the picture, Miss Margie Hines."
I show you this picture and ask you if that is not the official program of the Radio Electrical World Fair at Madison Square Garden?
Max Fleischer: "Yes, sir."
Did you get that there?
Max Fleischer: "Yes, sir."
Margie Hines, resumes the stand in behalf of the Paramount Publix Corporation, testifies further as follows.
In this Betty Boop cartoons, what did you do, Miss Hines?
Mr. Phillips: I only want her to say that she sang and spoke.
Miss Hines, most of the girls at these Helen Kane contests sang "Do Something", isn't that so? Don't you remember that?
Margie Hines: No, I would not say most."
Quite a few of them?
Margie Hines: "Yes, quite a few."
Of course, you were trying your best to imitate Helen Kane so that you might win of of the prizes, isn't that so?
Margie Hines: "Well, it was not an impersonal contest, was it?"
You tried your best to impersonate Miss Kane?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
In regard you sang the song "Do Something" isn't that so?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
And you knew that was the song that Helen Kane had sung.
Margie Hines: (No answer.)
Had sung?
Margie Hines: "No."
In order to imitate Helen Kane you had to have seen her first, isn't that true?
Margie Hines: "Not necessarily."
When you went to this imitation contest of Helen Kane, had you ever seen Miss Kane before?
Margie Hines: "No, I had not."
Had you ever heard of her before?
Margie Hines: "No."
Had you ever heard a record of Helen Kane before?
Margie Hines: "No, sir."
You did not know anything about her style of singing?
Margie Hines: "No."
You went to this impersonal contest of Helen Kane to impersonate Miss Kane?
Margie Hines: "That is right."
What has been your business in the last two years?
Margie Hines: "I have been singing with an orchestra and I have been doing picture work."
Were you interested in a little cabaret in Freeport called "Betty Boop"!
Margie Hines: "You are speaking of a tea room my mother owned?"
Were you there?
Margie Hines: "I was there to visit my mother a few times."
You are quite sure it is not your place?
Margie Hines: "I am quite sure. In fact, my mother doesn't own it anymore."
Did you ever see this envelope before, Miss Hines? Look at it carefully, please.
Margie Hines: "No, sir. I never have."
Never saw that before?
Margie Hines: "No, sir. I do not know who he is."
Do you come from Freeport?
Margie Hines: "That is right."
Is this your printing Miss Hines? Look at it carefully, please.
Margie Hines: "I don't recognize it."
You are a little in doubt about it, aren't you Miss Hines? Who first told you about this Helen Kane contest in which you appeared?
Margie Hines: "My uncle."
What did your uncle tell you about this Helen Kane impersonal contest?"
Margie Hines: "He told me that there was a contest at a theatre in Brooklyn and he urged me to enter."
Who sang first at the contest, do you remember?
Margie Hines: "I did."
You were the first singer?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
How many other singers were there at this contest?
Margie Hines: "In the elimination contest? That was the contest the night before where we were chosen."
Where was the first contest?
Margie Hines: "Backstage."
At which theatre was that?
Margie Hines: "At the Albee Theatre in Brooklyn."
At the elimination backstage did you meet Miss Kane, Miss Helen Kane?"
Margie Hines: "No, sir."
How many other girls appeared at the elimination contest backstage at the Albee Theatre in 1929?
Margie Hines: "I would say definitely, but I think about 20 or 25."
Out of that 25 would you say that about 10 sang the song "Do Something"?
Margie Hines: "No."
Would you say the other songs were sung in this elimination contest, Miss Hines?
Margie Hines: "I don't know."
You don't remember at all?
Margie Hines: "No, because I went on first."
Please, do you reember at all any other songs that were sung by and of these girls in the elimination contest backstage at the Albee?
Margie Hines: "I am not sure."
After the elimination contest where did you then appear in the contest?
Margie Hines: "At the theatre on the stage."
How many girls appeared at the theatre, on the stage, in this Helen Kane impersonal contest?
Margie Hines: "About 12 or 15."
You heard the announcement, didn't you that this was an imitation contest of Helen Kane, didn't you know that?
Margie Hines: "Well, yes."
How many prizes were given out that evening, Miss Hines?
Margie Hines: "I believe three."
You won the first prize?
Margie Hines: "Yes, sir."
You won the first prize as being the best imitator of Helen Kane?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
And you had never heard Miss Kane before?
Margie Hines: "No, sir."
Where did you appear in an imitation contest of Helen Kane?
Margie Hines: "At the Riverside Theatre."
Where was that?
Margie Hines: "In New York."
Was there an elimination contest in New York?
Margie Hines: "At the final contest?"
Before the final contest was there also an elimination?
Margie Hines: "No, there were only three."
What are the names of the other two?
Margie Hines: "Miss Poe and Miss Questel."
You were introduced, were you not, as the girl who had won the first prize of the imitation contest of Helen Kane at the Albee Theatre?
Margie Hines: "That is right."
Did you hear Miss Questel in addition?
Margie Hines: "No, I did not."
Did you hear Miss Poe in this?
Margie Hines: "No."
How many songs did you sing?
Margie Hines: "One."
How often did you sing at the Riverside?
Margie Hines: "Just once."
Do you remember that Bonnie Poe also sang "Do Something"?
Margie Hines: "Yes, I remember that."
And do you remember that Mae Questel also sang "Do Something?"
Margie Hines: "No, sir."
What did she sing?
Margie Hines: "I don't know what she sang."
After the three of you had sung, do you recall that the manager came out and asked the audience to applaud for that girl whom they thought was the best imitator of Helen Kane, don't you recall that?
Margie Hines: "I am not sure about that. I know they all did in the contest in Brooklyn, but I am not sure about the New York contest.
Do you recall that you were announced as the winner, that you won the first prize?
Margie Hines: "Yes, at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn."
What prize did you win at the Riverside?
Margie Hines: "I did not win any prize at the Riverside."
Who won first prize?
Margie Hines: "Miss Questel and Miss Poe."
You received honorable mention, is that correct?
Margie Hines: "I did not receive anything."
Was anything said about you from the stage?
Margie Hines: "No."
Between the first imitation contest of Helen Kane and the Albee and the second one at the Riverside, had you heard Miss Helen Kane sing?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
Where did you hear her sing in the interim?
Margie Hines: "After the elimination contest backstage at the Albee I saw Miss Kane."
Where did you hear her sing?
Margie Hines: "At the Albee, she was appearing at the Albee at the time."
Did you know that Helen Kane had made Victor records of the song "Do Something"?
Margie Hines: "I have since heard so."
Miss Hines, is this your photograph?
Margie Hines: "Yes, sir."
Mr. Phillips: "I offer it in evidence."
Where did you hear the songs, did you have a song sheet?
Margie Hines: "Yes, sir."
Have you that song sheet yet?"
Margie Hines: "I may have it at home, I don't know."
This contest at the Albee, was that after the entire show had been completed?
Margie Hines: "Yes, sir."
You did not go to the Albee again after that night, did you?
Margie Hines: "No."
Before the contest you saw the show, didn't you?
Margie Hines: "At the elimination contest backstage I saw the show, yes."
Then you heard Helen Kane sing?
Margie Hines: "Yes."
And then in the final contest at the Albee that very night you again sang?
Margie Hines: "I sang."
And then you won the contest?
Margie Hines: "Yes."