About Helen Kane

Helen Kane (August 4, 1903 - September 26, 1966) was an American popular singer, best known for her "boop-boop-a-doop" trademark and her signature song, "I Wanna Be Loved By You". Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick used Kane as the model for his studio's most famous creation, Betty Boop. Helen Kane's first performance at the Paramount Theater in Times Square proved to be her defining moment and career's launching point. Kane was singing the popular song "That's My Weakness Now," when she interpolated the scat lyrics "boop-boop-be-doop." The rather odd gamble paid off, and four days later, Helen Kane's name went up in lights. Overnight, the world changed for Helen. Kane's agent Harry Besney got her $5,500 a week in Oscar Hammerstein's show "Good Boy" (where she introduced her hit, "I Want to Be Loved By You"). From there it was back to the Palace, but this time as a headliner for $5000 a week. In mid-1929, Paramount Pictures signed Helen to make a series of musicals. Her first of three 1929 films was "Nothing But the Truth", a comedy starring Richard Dix. From there Kane went into a college musical, "Sweetie", which starred Nancy Carroll and Stanley Smith. "Paramount on Parade", "Dangerous Nan McGrew", and "Heads Up!" were her last films. In 1932, she filed an unsuccessful $250,000 suit against Paramount and Max Fleischer, charging unfair competition and wrongful appropriation in the Betty Boop cartoons. The trial opened in April 1934 with Helen Kane and Betty Boop films being screened by Judge McGoldrick (no jury was called). Betty Boop voice-over talent Mae Questel, Margy Hines and Bonnie Poe were brought in to testify. McGoldrick ruled against Helen in 1934, claiming that Kane's testimony could not prove that her singing style was unique or not an imitation itself.