Baby Esther

"Baby" Esther Lee Jones, originally billed as Little, '''Li'l or Lil' Esther''', was a child entertainer who lived in Chicago, Illinois. She was initially managed by her parents, Gertrude and William Jones. Esther was a trained scat singer, dancer, and acrobat who performed regularly at nightclubs in Harlem and all over the United States in the 1920s. In her act, "Baby Esther" danced, made funny faces, rolled her eyes, and—most famously—interpolated wordless phrases such as "Boo-Boo-Boo", "Wha-Da-Da", and "Doo-Doo-Doo". By 1924, she was being managed by Lou Bolton. According to Bolton, Esther began using wordless syllables in her singing between 1926 and 1928, when she arrived in New York. == Career ==

Baby Esther lived in the "colored" neighborhood of Chicago with her mother and father. Esther's career began in the 1920s when she won first prize at a Charleston dancing contest in Chicago at the age of six. Bolton went on to arrange engagements for Esther in Chicago, New York, Detroit, Toronto, and other cities, after which he brought her to Europe. Jones was rarely called "Baby Esther" while performing, most commonly going by the names "Li'l Esther" and "Little Esther." Originally she was billed as "Farina's Kid Sister," but was later known as the "Miniature Florence Mills", as Esther had started her career impersonating Florence Mills. Mills was noted for her "light, bright" voice and her use of wordless vocalizations, such as "too-ty-tooty-too". The name "Farina's Kid Sister" derived from Allen "Farina" Hoskins, another African American child star of the period. Apart from his ongoing role in Our Gang comedies, Hoskins was an expert Charleston dancer, performing alongside his sister "Baby Jane." Bolton used Hoskins' fame to promote Esther in the early years of her career; the name formulation of "Little" (or Lil'/Li'l) Esther mimicked Hoskins' "Little Farina," a frequently used nickname. While touring Spain, Esther was referenced as a member of "La Pandilla," the Spanish name for the Our Gang kids (taken from their alternate series name of "Hal Roach's Rascals"); at least once, she was specifically tagged as the performer of Farina, due to her past imitations of him. 1928 Esther performed briefly at a nightclub called the Everglades Club, where she would do imitations of Florence Mills late at night. In June, Esther's father William Jones and manager Lou Bolton were charged for having a minor perform on stage; one write-up of the incident suggested that William Jones was not Esther's birth parent. In late 1928, Esther was signed for a short Movietone talking film, booked through William Morris for MGM. While the short was later listed variously as being "in production" or "completed", it has not surfaced. Harrison G. Smith, a business associate of Bolden Smith of New York, furnished Esther with several songs: "The Turtle Walk," "My Little Dixie Home," "I've Got the Blues for Dixieland," and "I Need a Man (Around My House)." 1929 Esther toured Europe in 1929, when her age was variously reported as seven While touring Europe, she delighted audiences, including royalty. In Spain, she played for King Alfonso and Queen Victoria Eugenie. Bolton blamed an Afro-French interpreter, cited in Variety as "Jacques Garnier," for the fracas. At first, Esther's return to the United States was announced. However, Sidney Garner—evidently the same man first cited as "Jacques"—took over as the Jones' manager forthwith, and the family stayed in Europe. Esther first performed in France at the Moulin Rouge. In Paris, she was known as the "Miniature Josephine Baker." Vu, a leading illustrated weekly, devoted the entire front cover to her picture and a full page in the interior. Jones was described as singing, dancing, doing the splits, and generally carrying on to the great delight of her audiences, dubbed as being "too cute for words". 1930–1934 Esther continued her success in South America. In Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Montevideo, she proved to be a sensation. In Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Edwin V. Morgan came to see her play; after her performance, he came backstage to congratulate her. He praised her ability to sing in different languages and invited her to perform for him at the American embassy. Accompanying Esther was Gordon Stretton, who was known as the Prince of Wales' favorite jazz entertainer. Throughout the course of the evening, the president of Brazil expressed to Sidney Garner his great pleasure at seeing such capable Black American artists in Brazil. Esther was interviewed in Rio de Janeiro by reporters who wanted to know how she had avoided the racists who lynched and burned Black people in Texas and Alabama. Esther replied that she had so far escaped their wrath by staying out of the South. In 1934, Esther, billed as "The Sepia Dancing Doll", appeared with Helena Justa's Harlem Maniacs revue. In July 1934, Esther performed in Philadelphia at a midnight benefit performance for the NAACP, along with numerous other African American stars. The Baltimore Afro-American commented that "Little Esther... had a bit too much art and finesse, born of her extensive travel and contacts, not to mention expert tutelage, for her to bring... spontaneous applause... But she had charm and grace—and—and—form! [Her] acrobatic dance number was very good." Esther made another Philadelphia appearance in September at a benefit for the Douglass Hospital, hosted by famed dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Notably, Robinson also taught Helena Justa and Florence Mills. Esther has been verified as giving routine performances as late as September 1934, An article during the week of August 22, 1931, mentioned that she was 12 years old. == Kane v. Fleischer ==

In 1930, Fleischer Studios' animator Grim Natwick introduced a caricature of Helen Kane—a singer known since 1923 for her baby voice, for replacing lyrics with noises, and, later, for her signature phrase "boop-oop-a-doop"—in the Talkartoons cartoon Dizzy Dishes. Drawn in the form of an anthropomorphic singing dog with droopy ears and a squeaky singing voice, "Betty Boop", as the character was later dubbed, soon became popular and the star of her own cartoons. In 1932, Betty Boop was changed into a human, the long dog ears becoming hoop earrings. In May 1932, Kane filed a $250,000 lawsuit against Max Fleischer and Paramount Publix Corporation for "exploiting her image", charging unfair competition and wrongful appropriation in the Betty Boop cartoons. She contended that Betty Boop's "boop-oop-a-doop" style constituted a "deliberate caricature" that gave her "unfair competition". The trial opened that year in the New York State Supreme Court, with Kane and Betty Boop films being viewed only by the judge; no jury was called. Vocal performers Margie Hines, Little Ann Little, Kate Wright, Bonnie Poe, and most notably Mae Questel were all summoned to testify. Under cross-examination, Bolton said that he had met with Kane at the club after Esther's performance, but could not recall when she had walked in. Bolton also stated that Fleischer's lawyers had paid him $200 to come to New York. Bolton told the court that he had no idea where Esther was, and he thought that she was "probably" still in Paris. In fact, in May 1934, she was performing in Louisville. According to jazz historian Robert O'Meally, this evidence might have been fabricated by the Fleischers to discredit Kane, whom they later admitted was their model for Betty Boop. O'Meally also questioned if there was some sort of deal between Fleischer Studios and Bolton and questioned if Esther was ever paid for her presumed loss of revenue. In his opinion, based on the totality of the evidence presented in the trial, the "baby" technique of singing did not originate with Kane. , c. 1930. The image has often been misidentified as depicting Esther Jones. == Legacy ==

Baby Esther is most associated today with her connection with the Kane v. Fleischer lawsuit. Jones' film has been credited with convincing the judge in the case that Helen Kane had copied Baby Esther. == Misconceptions ==

Baby Esther shares her original name and original stage name with Little Esther Phillips, who was also known as Esther Mae Jones. Both singers used the names "Little Esther" and "Li'l Esther", but Esther Phillips was of a later generation, born in 1935. Photos of the model Olya Gussy costumed as Betty Boop, taken by Russian-based studio Retro Atelier in 2008, are regularly misidentified as Esther Jones. An older photo often purported to show Jones went viral when it was distributed by the official Betty Boop Checks website. The image was actually a James Van Der Zee photo of an unidentified woman. == Admission of mistake ==

In 2021, a 2015 article by PBS, which had been used as "confirmation" of the "Baby Esther was the original Betty Boop" story by many people, was removed from the PBS website. PBS retracted the story, admitted that the "Baby Esther" portion of the article was never true, and apologized for spreading misinformation. == References ==