Without deciding if Betty Boop had been based on either Kane or Jones, the judge decided Kane had no claim to originality due to her apparent imitation of Jones, and so Fleischer's Betty Boop character was not infringing on her rights. Fleischer's lawyer also cited a short sound test film allegedly showing Jones singing with the same style, using the 'boop a doop' catchphrase. Lou Bolton, Jones' manager, asserted Kane had only started using the 'boop a doop' phrase after having visited one of Jones' performances. However, Fleischer completely denied the Betty Boop character had been based on Kane.Īt trial, Fleischer's lawyer claimed Kane herself had taken the phrase 'boop a doop' and her singing style from Esther Jones. It was not Esther Jones, but a white woman, Helen Kane, who sued Fleischer and his studio for US$250,000 for copying her visual appearance, including hair style, dress, makeup, and voice, as well as the 'boop a doop' catchphrase she used while singing. The character first appeared as a white woman with a long poodle like face, and drooping ears, and only later developing into a normal looking woman. Thirdly, the Betty Boop character was originally based on a French poodle not on Jones. Secondly, Esther Jones never claimed she was the original inspiration for the Betty Boop character, and never showed any interest in claiming any rights to it. It's a photo of Ukranian model Model Oyla (Модель Оля), in 2008, dressed as Betty Boop.

Hidden Figures: Esther Jones (Baby Esther)įirstly, the woman in the photo at right is not Esther Jones.Baby Esther Jones the Original Betty Boop.Esther Jones: The Original Black Betty Boop!.Various videos and websites make the same claim, sometimes with different photos. Another case of a talented black woman exploited by the white entertainment industry. The meme claims Esther Jones spent years unsuccessfully trying to win back her legal rights to the image. The meme typically claims the woman in the photo is Esther Jones, a famous black performer whose image was apparently unethically exploited when cartoonist Max Fleischer invented the cartoon character Betty Boop, based on Jones' image and singing style. That may just be the stuff of science fiction, but scroll on to find out if any of these mind-blowing Mandela effect examples got you too.For a five minute video version of this post, go here.Ī widely spread meme shows a picture of the 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop, and a photo of a woman looking very similar. Needless to say, no one is exempt from being stumped by the strange occurrences, and some even go so far as believe them as some sort of proof of alternate realities. Other people related to her in remembering things not exactly in the way that they happened, from spellings of your favorite snack brands all the way to important events that happened the year they were born. And it was named by paranormal researcher Fiona Broome, who wrongly recalled that late South African president, Nelson Mandela, had died in the 1980s after his imprisonment, when in fact, he passed in 2013.Īpparently, misremembering events and facts isn’t just exclusive to Broome. This eerie phenomenon where people collectively misremember events, historical facts and other famous pop culture moments is called the Mandela Effect. And as shocking as this discovery may feel in this very moment, you are actually not alone. If you remember Dorothy’s famous line in The Wizard of Oz as, 'Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore,” you would, in fact, be wrong.

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