- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHelen Clare Schroeder
- Height5′ 2″ (1.57 m)
- Helen Kane was born on August 4, 1904 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930), House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and Pointed Heels (1929). She was married to Dan Healy, Max Hoffman Jr. and Joseph A. Kane. She died on September 26, 1966 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, New York, USA.
- SpousesDan Healy(March 21, 1945 - September 26, 1966) (her death)Max Hoffman Jr.(February 1, 1933 - May 17, 1935) (divorced)Joseph A. Kane(November 13, 1924 - December 28, 1932) (divorced)
- She brought to life the Betty Boop character of Max Fleischer cartoons. The character was originally a dog with droopy ears and a similar squeaky voice. In 1932 the dog was transformed into the iconic Betty.
- At the peak of her flapper fame, there were Helen Kane dolls and Helen Kane lookalike contests.
- In 1939 she married 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.
- Was the model for the famous cartoon character Betty Boop from the 1930s. Her trademark theme song, "I Wanna Be Loved by You", was interspersed with Betty's famous "boop-boop-bedoops!".
- In 1932 she filed suit against Max Fleischer, his studio and Paramount Pictures, charging unfair competition and wrongful appropriation for the Betty Boop cartoons. The trial dragged on for two years and, although the animated star was an obvious caricature of Helen, she lost the case.
- "I just put it in at one of the rehearsals, a sort of interlude. It's hard to explain -- I haven't explained it to myself yet. It's like vo-de-o-do, Crosby with boo-boo-boo, and Durante with cha-cha-cha." -- Helen Kane, explaining the creation of her "boop-boop-a-doop" signature phrase.
- The fact that my greatest following are women and children, with a large smattering of older folks, proves that boop-a-dooping is just a more natural reflection of public taste than when Shakespeare ruled the day.
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