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.

Early life

During her childhood, a young Helen Schroeder attended St. Anselm’s Parochial School in the Bronx. Her German father's employment was questionable at times and her Irish mother worked in a laundry.

Kane's mother, Ellen Dixon Schroeder, reluctantly contributed $3 for her daughter's costume as a queen in the youth's first theatrical role at St. Anselm's. Fairy's gowns in the same production cost only fifty cents. By the time she was 15, Helen was onstage professionally, touring the Orpheum Circuit with the Marx Brothers.

Helen spent the early 1920s trouping in vaudeville as a singer, and kickline dancer with a theater engagement called the 'All Jazz Revue.' She played the New York Palace for the first time in 1921. Helen's Broadway days started here as well with the 'Stars of the Future,' (1922-24, and possibly a brief revival in early 1927).She also sang onstage with an early girl harmony singing trio - the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce.

Helen's roommate was Jessie Fordyce at this time. Though this trio could have been the Hamlton Sisters and Schroeder, Pearl Hamilton had chosen Jessie instead to tour as a trio act "just to see what happens" during the end of a theatrical season, around 1924. In the mid-1920s Helen married department store buyer Joseph Kane and took his last name professionally. By 1928 the marriage had ended in divorce.

Music

The big break of Helen Kane's career came in 1927, when appearing in a musical called A Night in Spain. Although the musical was considered a flop, closing after only 22 performances, its band conductor Paul Ash put her name forward for a performance at New York's Paramount Theater.

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-a-doop.” The rather odd gamble paid off, resonating with flapper culture 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 1928 show "Good Boy" (where she introduced the hit, "I Wanna Be Loved by You" ). From there it was back to the Palace, but this time as a headliner for $5,000 a week. Helen rejoined her pals from vaudeville The Three X Sisters of NBC radio fame (aka, the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce)for one night, during a live stage performance in 1935 she harmonized with their unique banter to a novely tune 'The Preacher and the Bear.'

She had excellent diction, intonation and timing, acquired during her apprenticeship in vaudeville. These were put to good use, as her songs have a strong word focus; they also capitalise on her pert, coquettish voice. She blended several styles which were fashionable at the end of the 1920s. These included scat singing, a kind of vocal improvisation, and also blending singing and speech; sprechgesang, or "speech-song" was fashionable at this time in the German Weimar Republic in both nightclubs and in serious music.

Kane made 22 song recordings during the height of her fame, during 1928-1930.[1] After 1930 and up to 1951, she made only 5 more, including a re-release of I Wanna Be Loved by You [2]

Discography

The release dates of recordings 1 to 22 are derived from the cover notes of the CD "Helen Kane - Great Original Performances - 1928 to 1930" (RPCD 323)[3]

Cult Following

As she took on the status of a singing sensation, there were Helen Kane dolls and Helen Kane look-alike contests, appearances on radio and in nightclubs. In late 1928 and early 1929 this cult following had reached its peak. Helen Kane's height (about 5 feet tall) and slightly plump figure attracted attention and fans. Her round face with its huge brown eyes was topped by black, curly hair; her voice was a baby squeak with a distinct Bronx accent. Audiences found Helen adorable.

Acting

In mid-1929, Paramount Pictures signed Helen to make a series of musicals, and put her on a salary of $8,000 a year. Her films were

• Nothing But the Truth (1929), a comedy starring Richard Dix
• Sweetie (1929), a college musical, which starred Nancy Carroll and Stanley Smith
• Pointed Heels (1929)
• Paramount on Parade (1930)
• Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930)
• Heads Up! (1930)
• A Lesson in Love (1931)

Fleischer v. Kane

In 1930, Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick introduced a caricature of Helen Kane, with droopy dog ears and a squeaky singing voice, in the Talkartoons cartoon Dizzy Dishes. "Betty Boop", as the character was later dubbed, soon became popular and the star of her own cartoons. In 1932, she was changed into a human from a dog, her long ears turning into hoop earrings.

In 1932, Kane 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 (a little-known black singer known as 'Baby Esther' was cited by the defence as "booping" in song).

Later Years

With the hardships of the Great Depression biting, the flamboyant world of the flapper was over, and Kane's style began to date rapidly. After 1931 she lost the favour of the movie makers, who chose other singers for their films. She appeared in a stage production called Shady Lady in 1933, and made appearances at various nightclubs and theatres during the 1930s.

On 1 February 1933 she married actor Max Hoffman Jr; they were divorced on 17 May 1935.

Five years later in 1939 she married the performer Dan Healy, with whom she had worked in the show Good Boy, back in 1928. Together they opened a restaurant in New York, known as "Healy's Grill". She remained married to Healy for the rest of her life.[4]

In 1950, she dubbed an 18-year-old Debbie Reynolds who performed "I Wanna Be Loved By You" in the MGM musical biopic of songwriting duo Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby: Three Little Words. She did not appear in the film's credits.

She appeared in several TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s, principally Toast of the Town (later episodes known as The Ed Sullivan Show). Kane's final public appearance was on the Ed Sullivan television show on St. Patrick's Day 1965.

Kane battled breast cancer for more than ten years. She had surgery in 1956 and eventually received two hundred radiation treatments as an outpatient at Memorial Hospital. Helen Kane died at age 62 in her apartment at 77-12 35th Avenue, Jackson Heights, Queens, on September 26, 1966. Healy was at her bedside. Helen Kane is buried in Long Island National Cemetery.

References

• New York Times, Helen Kane Dead; Boop-A-Doop Girl, September 27, 1966, Page 47.

External links

• Helen Kane: The Original Boop-Boop-a-Doop Girl
• HelenKane.com
• Dangerous Nan McGrew
• Helen Kane's Photo & Gravesite

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