"Boo-Boo-Boo" & "Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo"
A bewildered court stenographer dropped his pen and turned a tortured face to the bench in Supreme Court yesterday.
When Lou Bolton, theatrical agent, said: "Boo-Boo-Boo," describing sounds interpolated in songs by his protegee, Baby Esther, a young colored girl, before Helen Kane started to sing "Boop-Oop-a-Doop," the stenographer just bit his lip, and his pen raced on.
"What other sounds did Esther Jones interpolate?" asked Louis Phillips, counsel for Paramount Publix Corporation, defendants with Max Fleischer Studios, Inc., in Miss Kane's $250,000 damage suit.
"Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo," said Bolton. The stenographer wrinkled his brow but plunged desperately along.
"Were there any others?" asked Phillips. "Yes, Wha-Da-Da-Da." The stenographer sat back and moaned for help. Bolton admitted he was floored, but Phillips, whose guess was as good as any, spelled out the "meaningless sounds."
After learning from Margie Hines that these funny noises are called "licks," Justice McGoldrick went to the movies. He went to the Fleischer Studios at 1600 Broadway to see a sound film of Baby Esther, who, according to Bolton may have suggested to Miss Kane the style of singing she now claims the defendants swiped for their "Betty Boop" animated sound cartoon.
Miss Kane, said Bolton, started her "Boop-a-Dooping" at the Paramount a few weeks after she and her manager, Tony Shayne, occupied ringside seats at the Everglades Club, where Baby Esther sang for eight weeks after Bolton found her doing the Charleston in Chicago.
Miss Hines, whose voice is heard in the soundtracks of the "Betty Boop" cartoons, told the court she won a Helen Kane imitation contest in Brooklyn in 1929 and began work for the Fleischer Studios in May, 1930.
When Lou Bolton, theatrical agent, said: "Boo-Boo-Boo," describing sounds interpolated in songs by his protegee, Baby Esther, a young colored girl, before Helen Kane started to sing "Boop-Oop-a-Doop," the stenographer just bit his lip, and his pen raced on.
"What other sounds did Esther Jones interpolate?" asked Louis Phillips, counsel for Paramount Publix Corporation, defendants with Max Fleischer Studios, Inc., in Miss Kane's $250,000 damage suit.
"Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo," said Bolton. The stenographer wrinkled his brow but plunged desperately along.
"Were there any others?" asked Phillips. "Yes, Wha-Da-Da-Da." The stenographer sat back and moaned for help. Bolton admitted he was floored, but Phillips, whose guess was as good as any, spelled out the "meaningless sounds."
After learning from Margie Hines that these funny noises are called "licks," Justice McGoldrick went to the movies. He went to the Fleischer Studios at 1600 Broadway to see a sound film of Baby Esther, who, according to Bolton may have suggested to Miss Kane the style of singing she now claims the defendants swiped for their "Betty Boop" animated sound cartoon.
Miss Kane, said Bolton, started her "Boop-a-Dooping" at the Paramount a few weeks after she and her manager, Tony Shayne, occupied ringside seats at the Everglades Club, where Baby Esther sang for eight weeks after Bolton found her doing the Charleston in Chicago.
Miss Hines, whose voice is heard in the soundtracks of the "Betty Boop" cartoons, told the court she won a Helen Kane imitation contest in Brooklyn in 1929 and began work for the Fleischer Studios in May, 1930.
