Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Betty Boop Checks
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Betty Boop Checks was a website that used to sell Betty Boop cheques starting from 2003, in collaboration with King Features Syndicate and Fleischer Studios. A cheque, also known as a check, is a document that instructs a bank to transfer a certain sum of money from a person's account to the person named on the cheque. The drawer, or individual who writes the check, has a transaction banking account where their money is kept.
The website was active from 2003 to the late 2010s, up until the early 2020s. This Betty Boop website is notorious for creating a hoax that fooled the world.[1] Many years later this would later lead to a dispute between the Fleischers and PBS: Public Broadcasting Service.
Controversy: Betty Boop & Helen Kane
Controversy concerning the website is that there was a section called Betty Boop and Helen Kane.
The article on "Betty Boop Checks" stated that; it had been long theorized that Paramount Studios had based Betty Boop on the looks of a popular actress of that era, Helen Kane. To look at the picture of Ms. Kane, one can immediately see a resemblance. The article went on to state that after a two year struggle, Ms. Kane lost the case. Paramount proved this by showing a Paramount actress by the name of Clara Bow who also had the Betty Boop style of dress and hair. Lastly Ms. Kane alleged that the singing style given to Betty Boop was her own, however evidence was produced that Ms. Kane actually derived that singing style from watching Baby Esther Jones, a popular African-American singer she heard perform at the Cotton Club in New York City several years before the creation of the Betty Boop character. Misinformation is that the photo alleged to be Esther Jones by Betty Boop Checks, is actually a photo of Esther Bigeou taken in 1923 by James Van Der Zee, Esther Bigeou was an African-American singer and model from New Orleans, Louisiana.
The real "Esther Jones" did not lay claim to Helen Kane's "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" title or the "Boop" style of singing, and did not associate herself to the cartoon character Betty Boop. When the Betty Boop lawsuit came up, Esther Jones did not comment. Jones was actively performing in America under the name "Little Esther" around that time.
Trivia
- The fake photo was used as a source by millions world-wide who were fooled into thinking the photo was Esther Jones.
- It would seem the website would mysteriously be shut down in 2018.
- In the article, Clara Bow is used to say that Helen Kane lacked originality.
- Sometime between 2021 and 2023, the domain name was altered to the Betty Boop Store.
- The website "Betty Boop Checks" merged with the "Betty Boop Store".
- Although preserved, neither website is currently active.
- According to a "cartoon historian," the fabrication enraged Mark Fleischer. Fleischer was seeking for someone to sue. However, the story's origin could originally be traced back to the Betty Boop Checks website.
- Since then other websites have taken the story and recycled it. Most famously PBS, who later apologized.[2]