Baby Esther

Esther performed briefly at a nightclub called the Everglades Club, where she would do imitations of Florence Mills, late at night. In June, Esther's father William Jones and manager Lou Bolton got fined for having a minor perform on stage;[10] one write-up of the incident suggested that William Jones was not Esther's birth parent.[11]

At the time, Esther's booking agent was Tony Shayne, who one night brought Helen Kane—another performer whom he managed at the time—to meet Bolton. There both Kane and Shayne had ringside seats and watched Esther sing and dance on stage. Not too long after watching Esther's performance, Helen Kane began scat-singing in her own performances.

In late 1928 Esther was signed for a talking short by Movietone, booked through William Morris for MGM.[12] While the short was later listed variously as being in production[13] or completed,[14] it has not surfaced as of this writing.

Harrison G. Smith, a business associate of Bolden Smith of New York, furnished Esther with several songs: "The Turtle Walk," "My Little Dixie Home," "I've Got the Blues for Dixieland," and "I Need a Man (Around My House)."[15]

Esther toured Europe in 1929 and was described as the highest-paid child artist in the world.[16] While touring Europe she delighted audiences including royalty. In Spain she played for King Alphonso and Queen Victoria Eugenie.[17] In Sweden King Gustave and the Queen came to the theater especially to see her.[18] In France, Germany, and other countries, Esther also gave private performances for the nobility and high society.

Esther's travels around Europe were not entirely without fits and starts. After a dispute, Bolton was fired as the Jones family's manager and returned to the United States;[19] Bolton blamed an Afro-French interpreter, cited in Variety as "Jacques Garnier," for the fracas; at first, Esther's return to the United States was announced.[20] But Sidney Garner—evidently the same man first cited as "Jacques"—took over as the Joneses' manager forthwith, and the family stayed in Europe.[21]

Esther Jones first performed in France at the Moulin Rouge. In Paris, Esther was known as the "Miniature Josephine Baker." Audiences raved over her and the Parisian newspapers gave much space to her. Vu, a leading illustrated weekly, devoted the entire front cover to her picture and a full page in the interior. Esther was described as singing, dancing, doing the splits and generally carrying on to the great delight of her audiences, and was dubbed as being "too cute for words".[22]

The London Sunday People in its review of Paris plays said of Esther: "Thousands flock no longer to the Moulin Rouge to see Mistinguett herself or the clever American ballet girls, or the beautiful women of the chorus, but to applaud a little mite, 10-year-old, who has won fame and wealth within the space of a few weeks. We are living in an age of speed but this amazing little child has broken every record of sudden theatrical success."[23]

In Stockholm, Sweden in August, Esther was famously refused service at an American restaurant run by Brenda Tomton, an immigrant from the United States. Swedish dignitaries and officials around the country spoke up in support of Esther and objected to Tomton's discrimination, railing against American "Jim Crowism" in Sweden.[24]

Esther continued her success in South America. In Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Montevideo she proved to be a sensation.[25] In Rio de Janeiro, American Ambassador Morgan came to see her play and after her performance came backstage to congratulate her. He praised her ability to sing in different languages and invited her to perform for him at the American embassy. Accompanying Esther was Gordon Stretton, who was known as the Prince of Wales' favorite jazz entertainer. In the course of the evening, the president of Brazil expressed to Sidney Garner his great pleasure at seeing such capable black American artists in Brazil.[26]

Esther was interviewed in Rio de Janeiro by press who wanted to know how she had avoided the racists who lynched and burned black people in Texas and Alabama. Esther replied that she had so far escaped their wrath by staying out of the South.[27]

When Esther returned to the United States she purportedly continued touring and danced for Cab Calloway and his Orchestra as one of his Sepia Dancers at his club in New York. From 1933 to 1934, Esther appeared in Helena Justa's Harlem Maniacs revue.

One of the main reasons Baby Esther is not remembered is because she was never a feature attraction in Cab Calloway's New York club; she was a background Sepia dancer, which is why Esther was only given a small tap dancing number in Justa's revue. Justa had loaned the Sepia dancers from Cab Calloway.

In 1934, Esther would have been 13 years old, as she was seven in 1928. Although with Esther, there seemed to have been a bit of age fabrication, to make her seem either younger or older than she actually was. A few articles from 1929 describe Esther as 11 or 12 years of age.

Esther later returned to the stage as "The Sepia Dancing Doll" and was dubbed the fastest colored dancer who was red hot. Online speculation tends to suggest that Esther may have died young, but she has been verified as giving routine performances as late as September 1934.[28]

In July 1934, Esther performed in Philadelphia at a midnight benefit performance for the NAACP, along with numerous other African-American stars. The Baltimore Afro-American commented that "Little Esther... had a bit too much art and finesse, born of her extensive travel and contacts, not to mention expert tutelage, for her to bring... spontaneous applause... But she had charm and grace—and—and—form! [Her] acrobatic dance number was very good."[29] Esther made another Philadelphia appearance in September at a benefit for the Douglass Hospital, hosted by the famed dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.[30] Notably, Robinson also taught Helena Justa and Florence Mills.

According to a source, Esther later became a full-time acrobat and had later lost most of her appeal and was then succeeded by other black child stars such as Baby Hilda and Baby Selma.

The defense argued that Kane had taken the idea from Baby Esther. Evidence was produced that Kane actually derived that singing style from watching Baby Esther perform at the Cotton Club several years before the creation of the Betty Boop character. Theatrical manager Lou Bolton testified for the defense stating that in 1925, he coached a "young negro child" named Esther, teaching her how to interpolate her songs with scat lyrics, "boo-boo-boo" and "doo-doo-doo", which Kane later reinvented as her trademark "boop oop a doop". Jones' manager testified that he and Kane had seen her act together in April 1928, and just a few weeks later, Kane began to "boop".[31][32]

Paramount was able to prove that Kane did not uniquely originate or have claim to the Betty Boop style of singing or look. In addition to adducing Baby Esther's performances, they showed performances by actress Clara Bow, who also had the Betty Boop style of dress and hair. Louis Bolton was brought in court to testify. Bolton told the court that he had no idea where Esther was, and he thought that she was "probably still" in Paris.[33]

After a two-year legal struggle, Max Fleischer located a sound film made in 1928 of her performing, which was introduced as evidence.[34] Judge Edward J. McGoldrick ruled, "The plaintiff has failed to sustain either cause of action by proof of sufficient probative force."[35] In his opinion, the "baby" technique of singing did not originate with Kane.[36][37][38]