(Later the character's skirts were lengthened, and her dialogue was written with less suggestive overtones.) The saucy cartoons, Pre-1935 cartoon gags show the character losing her dress, revealing a nude silhouette, and dancing suggestively to hot Cab Calloway jazz. As a result, the early on-screen antics of Betty Boop were considered somewhat risque for the times.
Betty boop voice movie#
Indeed, Questel told Leslie Cabarga, author of The Fleischer Story, "I actually lived the part of Betty Boop walked, talked, everything! It took me a long time to sort of lower my voice and get away from the character."ĭuring that era, cartoons were part of a movie package shown to as many adults as children. A better singer and improviser than her predecessors, she also modeled for Fleischer's animators who based many of the character's emerging physical quirks on Questel's own mannerisms. Each of these actresses utilized Kane's flirty, babydoll voice and catchphrase "boop-oop-a-doop," but it was Questel who made Betty Boop a media phenomenon. The character, which began life as a cartoon dog with Kane-like affectations, had already been voiced by various actresses, most notably Margie Hines, Little Ann Little, Bonnie Poe, and Kate Wright. The Voice of Betty BoopĬartoon filmmaker Max Fleischer saw Questel's impersonation of Helen Kane in 1931 and asked her to use it for his cartoon creation Betty Boop. Now billed as "Mae Questel, Personality Singer of Personality Songs," she began performing regularly on radio and took steady work with the RKO vaudeville circuit, culminating in a much-prized gig at the prestigious Palace Theater in New York in 1930. When her impersonation of singer Helen Kane-the Madonna of the flapper era-helped her win a talent contest at the RKO Fordham Theater in 1925, her career kicked into a higher gear. By the time she graduated high school at age 17, young Mae was already working in vaudeville, doing her spot-on singing impersonations of such contemporary stars as Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, Marlene Dietrich, Ruth Etting, and Maurice Chevalier. Although her parents demanded she quit her dramatic studies and latch on to a steady career in teaching, the youngster's love of performance determined her fate. Moreover, she provided voices for literally hundreds of cartoons that are still seen and heard around the world today.īorn Mae Kwestel September 13, 1908, in New York City, she was raised in the Bronx by parents Simon Kwestel and Frieda Glauberman, where she honed her abilities as a mimic and dialect comic at local charitable functions. Never exactly a household name, the diminutive actress consistently made a solid living in vaudeville, on network radio, television, playing memorable character parts in films, and on the Broadway stage. Questel, a singer, comedienne, and character actress, paved the way for such modern day voice actors as June Foray, Tress MacNeill, and Nancy Cartwright. However, she achieved lasting pop culture fame as the voice of animated cartoon characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. Hollywood on Parade No.Movie lovers might remember American singer and actor Mae Questel (1908–1998) best as the dotty old woman who wrapped the family cat as a gift in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, or as Woody Allen's omnipresent nagging mother in "Oedipus Wrecks" included in the 1989 film New York Stories.
Poe also portrayed Betty Boop in an on-camera live action short.
Betty boop voice series#
She was also the initial voice for the character Olive Oyl in that studio's series of Popeye cartoons. Bonnie Poe was an American actress, best known for providing the voice for the Fleischer Studios animated character Betty Boop beginning in 1933.
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