These women belonged to the relatively young field of voice artists. Unlike voice actors, who created voices for radio show characters who were never actually seen by the public, voice artists had to match their voices to the visual image of the character on the screen. While some of these artists came from careers in radio, others entered the field though voice contests and some came to it simply by chance. Figuring out which voice artist contributed to which film can be tricky because - as odd as it may seem by today’s standards - voice artists rarely received screen credit for their work.
While there are some things we may never know about these talented and intrepid women, we do know that all six women contributed to Betty’s on-screen success. We are honored to share them, and what we know of their stories, with you. |
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Margie Hines: Betty's first voice! Margie Hines, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
Having provided the voice of Betty, a bit player in the 1931 Fleischer film Dizzy
Dishes, Margie Hines carries the proud distinction of serving as Betty Boop’s first voice. Betty makes only a brief appearance in this film. Portrayed as a dog-eared cabaret singer, she sings I Have to Have You, causing Bimbo (the real star of the film) to fall head-over-heels in love. A former office worker, Margie got into show biz after winning a “Boop-a-doop” contest and was discovered by another Fleischer voice artist who had seen her perform on the vaudeville stage. In 1939, while working for Fleischer Studios, Margie (then the voice of Olive Oyl) met and married fellow voice artist Jack Mercer (the voice of Popeye). The real-life marriage of the voices behind Popeye and Olive Oyl was highly celebrated by the media and even included a wedding breakfast of spinach. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last. It seems Margie was quite the social butterfly, while Jack preferred a life that was a bit more subdued. A talented and versatile voice artist, Margie provided voices for numerous characters, at Fleischer Studios as well as other studios. In addition to voicing Olive Oyl and Betty Boop, Margie lent her vocal talents to a number of Fleischer films including "The Stone Age” series, Gulliver’s Travels, and Mr. Bug Goes to Town. Although five other women would go on to provide Betty’s voice, Margie also continued voicing Betty throughout the 1930s and - interestingly - holds the distinction of voicing Betty in her last 1930s film appearance: Rhythm on the Reservation. Watch On With The New (to the right) to hear Margie Hines voice Betty Boop. Harriet Lee: aka "The Songbird of the Air”
Despite her success, Lee chose to disappear from public life in the mid-1930s and went on to work as both secretary and voice coach for the movie star Dorothy Lamour. Later, according to Ed Sullivan’s gossip column, dated Dec. 21, 1939, Dorothy Lamour even served as “bridesmaid at the wedding of her secretary, Harriet Lee to Bill Boggess…”
Harriet Lee’s marriage is mentioned in Ed Sullivan’s column, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 21, 1939. Fleischer Family Collection
Mae Questel: the Biggest Booper of all!Certainly the voice that is most associated with Betty Boop, Mae Questel is featured in more Betty Boop films than any other voice artist.
Certainly the voice that is most associated with Betty Boop, Mae Questel is featured in more Betty Boop films than any other voice artist.
Mae’s first turn as the voice of Betty came in Betty Boop’s sixth film, Silly Scandals. Although Bimbo was still considered the “star” of the film, Betty’s star was already on the rise and her roles were beginning to reflect that. Released in 1931, well before the Motion Picture Production code curtailed Betty’s sometimes racy antics, the film features Betty singing a rather long rendition of You’re Driving Me Crazy while her dress repeatedly slips down revealing her bra.
That Mae happened to look quite a lot like Betty Boop can be seen in her performance in Musical Justice, one of only two live action Betty Boop film appearances. In this 1931 Paramount film, Rudy Vallée plays a courtroom judge and Mae, as Betty, sings and pleas that they not ‘take her boop-oop-a-doop’ away. She wins. Of course.
Mae continued as the voice of Betty until the Studio moved from New York to Florida in 1938. Mae, who was married and had two children, decided not to make the move. An exceptionally versatile performer with an enormous range, Mae not only provided voices for characters such as Olive Oyl, Swee’pea and Casper the Friendly Ghost, she even provided the voice of Popeye during World War II when Jack Mercer was serving in the military. Mae enjoyed a long career in show business - appearing in Woody Allen's Zelig and later as the Jewish Mama in New York Stories. She is also well-remembered as Aunt Bluebell in an iconic series of television commercials for Charmin' Toilet Tissue (“Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin”). Mae’s final turn as Betty came in 1988 when she famously voiced Betty Boop in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Bonnie Poe ... meets Dracula!
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Publicity photo of Ann Little from the 1920s, prior to her working with Betty Boop. Fleischer Family Collection.
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Ann was called “Little Ann Little” because she was only 4’-10” tall and weighed about 100 pounds. Her first acting job, in 1925, was in the chorus of The Greenwich Village Follies. Around 1931 Ann and her unique squeaky voice came to Max Fleischer’s attention through a voice contest that had been run by Paramount Pictures.
By the time Ann came along, Betty Boop was already at the height of her popularity. Max used Ann as Betty Boop’s voice in several films, but her more significant contribution to the Betty Boop canon came in the form of a unique, live vaudeville show that Max developed and sent out on the road featuring Ann and a female artist, Pauline Comanor. Ann would sing and dance dressed as Betty Boop. Then she would strike a pose and Pauline would draw ‘Betty’ on a large sheet of paper that was given to fans in the audience.
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Perhaps the most challenging of the voices behind Betty Boop, the story of Little Ann Little is difficult to accurately piece together in part because of her long-standing, very public and wholly inaccurate insistence that she was the first and longest running voice of Betty Boop.
In a 1971 interview, Ann claimed she made “about 18 cartoons a year” as Betty Boop, though in fact she voiced just a handful of films before going on the road with Pauline Comanor. And in a 1975 interview for a newspaper article, Ann professed to being upset because others were wrongly getting credit for ‘being’ Betty Boop. To support her claims, she quoted a letter written by Mike Lacy, then-President of a Betty Boop Fan Club, to radio host Tom Synder saying:
In a 1971 interview, Ann claimed she made “about 18 cartoons a year” as Betty Boop, though in fact she voiced just a handful of films before going on the road with Pauline Comanor. And in a 1975 interview for a newspaper article, Ann professed to being upset because others were wrongly getting credit for ‘being’ Betty Boop. To support her claims, she quoted a letter written by Mike Lacy, then-President of a Betty Boop Fan Club, to radio host Tom Synder saying:
It has been called to my attention that Mae Questel appeared on your program Thursday, August 28, 1975. She claimed to be the original voice of Betty Boop. Mrs Ann L. Rothschild has valid proof of being the first Betty Boop.”
Because voice artists so often went uncredited, we truly don’t know precisely how many films Ann Little voiced. But we do know, without a doubt, that Margie Hines was Betty’s first voice and that Mae Questel was the longest-lasting voice of Betty and certainly the one most often associated with her. That we cannot rely on Ann Little’s own accounting unfortunately (and somewhat ironically) complicates our ability to say much about her place in Betty Boop’s story with any degree of certainty.
What we do know is that Ann married twice after leaving show business. The first was in the early 1940s to Louis Herbert Werner, who was 22 years her senior. She moved with Werner, who was retired, to St. Petersburg, Florida where he died in 1948. She married again in July 1960 to Joseph Rothschild, who died in July 1969. At one point she claims to have set up a Betty Boop School of Dancing in St. Petersburg, though it’s not clear if that was the name of the school or her theory of teaching at the Pauline Buhner School of Dance where she is known to have worked.
Eventually Ann left show business and was ordained as a Christian Unity minister, though she maintained that show business and the ministry were the same thing, saying:
What we do know is that Ann married twice after leaving show business. The first was in the early 1940s to Louis Herbert Werner, who was 22 years her senior. She moved with Werner, who was retired, to St. Petersburg, Florida where he died in 1948. She married again in July 1960 to Joseph Rothschild, who died in July 1969. At one point she claims to have set up a Betty Boop School of Dancing in St. Petersburg, though it’s not clear if that was the name of the school or her theory of teaching at the Pauline Buhner School of Dance where she is known to have worked.
Eventually Ann left show business and was ordained as a Christian Unity minister, though she maintained that show business and the ministry were the same thing, saying:
In show business you try to lift people up so they can forget their problems, and it’s the same in religion. You try to lift their minds off their problems and put in God.”
Margie Hines and her experiences as Betty’s first voice. circa 1932. Fleischer Family Collection.
Harriet Lee. Fleischer Family Collection.
Mae made a rare live action appearance as Betty Boop together with Rudy Vallée in "Musical Justice."
Hear Mae Questel voice Betty in "Is My Palm Red" (1933)
Mae and Max Fleischer would make appearances together in New York stores and theaters. Early 1930s. Fleischer Family Collection.
Images from Paramount's Hollywood on Parade. Above: actor Eddie Borden tugs on Betty’s garter. Below: An excerpt from "Hollywood on Parade" featuring Eddie Borden, Bonnie Poe as Betty Boop and Bela Lugosi as Dracula.
Fleischer Family Collection.
Letter written to a fan from ‘Little Ann Little.’ Sept. 1937. Fleischer Family Collection.
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Newsreel footage courtesy of Internet Archives
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