Esther jones biography
Esther jones betty boop images...
Esther jones obituary
Her Story: Baby Esther
Esther Lee Jones, AKA Baby Esther, was an American cabaret singer and entertainer at several night clubs in Harlem including the Cotton Club. Born in 1919, Baby Esther was the original inspiration for the cartoon character Betty Boop and she was Black.
It is not until recent years that Jones has received proper credit for this Americana icon.
Jones started as a child entertainer at age 4 from Chicago, Illinois. Her act, Baby Esther, would dance, make funny faces and use interpolated words and other scat sounds.
She would often finish her act with “Boop-Boop-a-Doop”. Helen Kane, a white female entertainer, first saw Jones perform in 1928 (Jones was 9).
Esther jones biography
A short time later Kane performed scat sounds almost identical to Baby Esther’s act, then recorded a song titled “I Want to Be Loved By You’ with the “Boop-Boop-a-Doop” phrase in the song. She became famous almost instantaneously.
Boop first appeared in 1930, her c