Mae Questel provided the voice for Betty Boop beginning in 1931, at a time when talking cartoons were still new and studios were figuring out what animated women were supposed to sound like. She based the voice on Helen Kane, a real singer who sued the studio for it. The lawsuit failed when the studio produced a Black jazz singer named Baby Esther who'd been doing the baby voice years before Kane. Questel also voiced Olive Oyl in the Popeye cartoons for decades. She died on January 4, 1998, at 89. Her last major screen role was in Home Alone 3, the year before she died.
January 4, 1998
28 years ago
What Else Happened on January 4
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