AMPLIFY: Baby Esther Jones

This will likely be one of the shortest editions of Amplify. So short, in fact, that I don’t even have a timeline following this article because the life of Esther Jones was not well documented. In fact, the best source available (for free) online is Wikipedia. In most cases I wouldn’t use Wikipedia as a source, let alone my only source, but the citations for this particular Wikipedia article about the child who inspired the woman who inspired Betty Boop are books, newspaper articles, and scholarly articles so big thanks to the angel that put that page together. The other potential online resources I came across were poorly written at best and completely inaccurate at worst. Normally with this utter lack of resources, I would have found a new person to write about, but in this instance, the story of Esther Jones is so strange that I couldn’t not share it with HerStry readers.

Esther Jones began her “career” in 1924 at just four years old. She was trained as a scat singer (at the age of four, somehow) and had a particular way of scatting that helped peak her popularity. She won a Charleston contest in Chicago and Lou Bolton, a theatrical manager at the time, started booking Jones in clubs in Chicago, New York, Detroit, Toronto, and eventually around the world. Keep in mind, this all began when she was just four years old. When Esther first began performing, she went by a lot of different stage names: Little Esther, Farina’s Kid Sister, Miniature Florence Mills, and a few more for brief periods of time. A lot of Esther’s stage names were related to other culture icons of the time. Based on the brief timeframe, Esther went by a different name with almost every series of performances. In 1926, Esther was called La Pandilla while she was touring through Spain. Again, dear reader, I’d like to remind you that we are talking about, at this point, a six year old child.

Esther’s life was only documented through where she performed, and there is slim to no information available on her parents or any other parts of her life. Based on her notable performance, it seems as though she went back and forth between the US and Europe fairly often. In 1928, we know that Esther was back performing in the US at the Everglades Club because that performance was the main source of defense for the man who helped popularize the Betty Boop cartoon. By 1929, according to Wikipedia, Esther was the highest paid child performer in the world. She would often perform for Kings & Queens, and other members of nobility around the world. In 1930, Esther returned to the US and spent most of her time performing in New York.

In 1932, Helen Kane, whose claim to fame is the song “I Wanna Be Loved By You,” sued Max Fleischer and Paramount Publix Corporations after learning of their cartoon creation, Betty Boop. Kane claimed that she inspired the cartoon and rightfully deserved compensation because of the character’s success. Fleischer and Paramount eventually won the legal battle because Esther’s former manager testified that Kane was at Esther’s show at the Everglades Club in 1928 and heard Esther’s particular kind of scatting. Kane then released “I Wanna Be Loved By You” in September 1928 featuring almost the same interpolates she heard. Even though it was shown in court that Helen Kane profited from ripping off and appropriating Esther Jones, there was no additional action on behalf of Esther. During the trial, it was assumed that Jones was in Paris so she was not even called to testify.

To recap up to this point, Esther Jones is a child star who was “discovered” by Lou Bolton in Chicago. Esther goes on an international tours when she is just six years old. We don’t know much about her life outside of this. She performs continually until 1934, when she is between fourteen and fifteen years old. If her life was already not strange enough, this is where things really take a turn.

The last time Esther Jones was recorded performing was in 1934 as an acrobat, when she was supposedly fifteen years old. After that, there is nothing. Esther seemingly vanishes into thin air. I searched the internet high and low looking for the year she died, or how she may have died. The most common answer I found was that she was declared dead in absentia in 1934, but it doesn’t seem like anyone still living now knows where Esther Jones actually went.

The story of Baby Esther Jones seems to raise more questions than it does provide answers.  With this story, especially, I leave you with my invitation for feedback. Suggestions, criticisms, questions, corrections, more information—I want it all! We’re trying to help educate the HerStry community on the badass women of our past, but we still have a lot to learn ourselves. Also, if any of you HerStry Babes have pro-tips for finding primary sources for the low, low price of free, help some Babes out and drop your links in the comments. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Esther

-Ashlee Christiansen

Ashlee lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is an Illinois native - grew up in the Chicago suburbs, went to school at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, and lived in the city of Chicago up until 2015. In June 2015, she packed up with her partner and moved to the city she has absolutely fallen in love with, Pittsburgh! When she's not at work, she can typically be found in yoga class, working on the next edition of AMPLIFY, cuddling with George the cat, or enjoying trying to figure out what next home improvement task she is going to take on. Follow her nonsense on Twitter: @trashleeinpgh