Who will get the last boop?
​1928, a 14-year-old Black jazz singer, Esther, with a unique scat style, took the jazz world by storm. During a performance in a New York City club, a struggling vaudeville comedian, Helen, witnessed the child’s singing style and was amazed. Helen then appropriated her signature style, making that style her own, including Esther’s “boop boop a doop.”​
Helen was cast in Oscar Hammerstein's play, and using Esther’s unique style, sang the song "I Want To Be Loved By You” making it huge hit. As a result, Esther’s career was left in ruins.​
Firing her abusive manager, Esther met a noted French agent who made her a huge star in Europe, and his lover, Josephine Baker, mothered her into healthy adulthood. But her anger about the theft of her vocal style bothered her to no end.​
All was going well for Helen until Max Fleischer Studios created the sultry, vulnerable teen vamp, Betty Boop. Soon, Helen was soon a has-been.
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In London, Esther gave a performance for the future king, Prince Edward. Backstage, Helen congratulated Esther, full of snark. Esther wasn't having it and a fight to rival Alexis and Dominique in Dynasty ensued.
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Helen, filing for bankruptcy and her career in a tailspin, sued Max Fleischer Studios for copying her "unique” vocal style to create Betty Boop. During the Hollywood “trial of the century,” Esther's former manager contacted Esther after her grand performance in Stockholm. Esther agreed to come back to America with her fiancé, Henri, to testify at the trial.
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After a series of performances in Berlin, Esther and Henri missed their ship, never to be heard from again!!
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But Esther was filmed years earlier and her test video and audio tape were found, killing Helen’s chance to win the lawsuit.
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Esther had the last “boop!
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Boop vs. Boop is inspired by real persons
and actual events.
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WGA 1956318
Austin Film Festival Coverage
Concept: A historical drama revolving around the inspiration of cartoon character Betty Boop. Based on real people and featuring original songs it’s like ‘Dreamgirls.’ But with a womanly rivalry and crackling dialogue it’s also reminiscent of ‘All About Eve.’
Plot: Esther Lee Jones, known on stage as “Baby Esther,” is an in-demand, one of a kind, baby scat performer blowing up in American clubs in the Eastern and Southern states, but her career is compromised when Helen Kane decides to steal the baby scat style and takes it to bigger stages and even the movies. Baby Esther takes her style to Europe but Helen’s popularity and good will falter until she realizes she can sue the cartoon creators of Betty Boop.
Structure: The story is well paced. Esther and Helen have individual storylines then are pushed together at just the right times. There’s a solid beginning, middle and end for each woman the story is about and the story altogether.
Characters: The characters have great backstory - Helen used to be a Marx Bros. gal, Esther’s been managed and man handled (literally) by Lou her whole life. The relationship developed between Esther and Josephine is well done. It isn’t always easy to get an audience or established characters to connected to someone that comes along late in a script but that isn’t a problem with Henri or the Count or Josephine.
Dialogue: The dialogue really zips along. It zings with Joseph Mankiewitz’s or Robert Risken period flair in certain places. Great lines include: “Tony, you can read the menu, you don’t have to eat. And this menu looks delicious,” and Max’s line, “Sexy, innocent, and stupid as a pimple on your mother’s ass.” But it handles the heavy concept of white performers stealing black style with delicacy and truth in the conversations with Esther and Josephine.
Overall: There’s a lot to like about this script. It tells a story people should know but don’t and it tells it well. It has the tone necessary for the time and setting of the story and the writer injects their voice into the world with skill. Every scene is intent of serving the plot and structure of the story. The screenplay also manages to juggle fun and imaginative subplots where history doesn’t offer very many clues. It starts and finishes strong.