Mae Questel

Mae Questel
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Name	Mae Kwestel, Mae Questel

Mae Questel was a voice actress best known for voicing Olive Oyl & Betty Boop. At the age of 17 by winning a competition that was held in the RKO Fordham Theater in order to select a young lady who could most successfully imitate Helen Kane's baby talk act, Cartoon filmmaker Max Fleischer saw Questel's impersonation of Helen Kane in 1931 and asked her to use it for his cartoon creation Betty Boop. The character, which began life as a cartoon dog with Kane-like affectations, had already been voiced by various actresses, most notably Margie Hines, Little Ann Little, Bonnie Poe, and Kate Wright. Each of these actresses utilized Kane's flirty, babydoll voice and catchphrase "boop-oop-a-doop," but it was Questel who made Betty Boop a media phenomenon. A better singer and improviser than her predecessors, she also modeled for Fleischer's animators who based many of the character's emerging physical quirks on Questel's own mannerisms. Indeed, Questel told Leslie Cabarga, author of The Fleischer Story , "I actually lived the part of Betty Boop; walked, talked, everything! It took me a long time to sort of lower my voice and get away from the character." She began in vaudeville, and played occasional small roles in films and television later in her career, most notably the role of Aunt Bethany in 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . Over the years she played a number of small parts, including appearing with Rudy Valle as Betty Boop in the 1931 short Musical Justice and as a nurse in The Musical Doctor in 1932. From 1931 until 1938, Questel provided the voice of Betty Boop and was the longest run for any actress doing the voice of Betty. During the 1930's she released a recording of "On the Good Ship Lollipop" which sold more than two million copies. Mae also used to portray Betty Boop in person, after a Betty Boop cartoon had been shown to a live audience she would jump through a paper heart, dressed as Betty.

Retirement

During the 80's Mae Questel became ill and retired but still had a contract with King Features for Olive Oyl from the Popeye the Sailorman series.

In 1980 Mae was replaced by Victoria D'orazi because it was felt by New Line Cinema that Mae Questel’s voice was inappropriate for the new songs that were included.
Mae was replaced by Desirée Goyette in 1985 as the voice of Betty Boop. Reason for this was that Bill Melendez commented that he had planned to animate the character better than the Fleischer artists ever had. He stated that he had no plans to hire any of the original animators who had worked on the original shorts, nor would he consider using Mae Questel, Betty's long time voice.
According to Desiree Goyette, Questel was contacted first but she was elderly at the time and her voice had dropped "quite alot actually".
Mae reprised her role as Betty in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit' but in 1989 Mae was replaced by Melissa Fahn in 1989. George Evelyn the show's director told a writer of a production company that she wanted to re-create the Fleischer look and did so in part with the help of Richard Fleischer who supplied materials from the family archives. Everlyn had wanted to use Mae Questel for Betty's voice but Mae was busy filming Woody Allen's segment of "New York Stories". Evelyn launched a series of auditions, and in true "Hollywood" fashion the secretary (Melissa Fahn) at the recording studio that was producing copies of the audition tapes had the voice Evelyn wanted.
During the 70's & 80's Mae used her Betty Boop voice in interviews and conventions and would occasionally perform a song made popular by Helen Kane "Button Up Your Overcoat", a song which was never performed by Betty Boop in the cartoon series. But in one of her interviews it was hinted that this was the song she had performed during the Helen Kane look and sound-a-like contest and had won first place.

Characters voiced by Mae Questel in the Betty Boop Series

Baby Boop (Is my Palm Read)
Junior (The Foxy Hunting)
Aloysius/Billy Boop (Stopping the Show & Let Me Call You Sweetheart)
Mrs Boop in Minnie the Moocher
Pudgy
Evil Queen in Snow White
Bimbo's Mother in Minding the Baby
Junior in The Foxy Hunter

Other Work

Mae Questel also provided the voice of Felix the Cat in three shorts produced by Van Beuren Studios, and Cute Kitty & Louise the Mouse in Famous Studio's "Herman & Katnip". Little Audrey and Casper the friendly ghost in their respective animated shorts. The Woman in the Shoe & Little Bo Peep in color classics.In the 1950s, she was the voice for the title character of the pioneering interactive Saturday-morning cartoon series Winky Dink and You. Questel's final film was a voice cameo appearance in Felix the Cat: The Movie. She continued to provide the voice for Olive Oyl in television specials and elsewhere until her death.

Death

Mae Questel died in 1998 from complications related to Alzhimer's disease at the age of 89 in New York City. She was buried in West Babylon, New York's New Montefiore Cemetery. She had two sons, Robert Balkin, who pre-deceased her, and Richard, who survived her.

Songs Performed by Mae Questel as Betty Boop

You're Driving Me Crazy
That's My Weakness Now
I'm An Indian
Hello Beautiful
Won't You Come And Play At My House?
This World Is Full Of Foolish Facts
Mean To Me
Crazy Town
This World Is Full Of Foolish Facts
Change!
Ain'tCha
Home Sweet Home
When I'm The President
Is That The Human Thing To Do?
I've Got A Cold In My Nose
Penthouse Serenade
I Heard
Ha! Ha! Ha!
There's Something About a Soldier
Little Pal
Keep In Style
Once There Was A Little Lad
A Language All My Own
Over At Grampy's House
It's Good For You
New Deal For Pets
Be up To Date

Other

Mae Questel on her Decca Recordings (1970's): "You know, I'm a collectors item now. Some of the old records I made for the Decca people are now buying as collectors items."

Mae Questel

Retirement

Characters voiced by Mae Questel in the Betty Boop Series

Other Work

Death

Songs Performed by Mae Questel as Betty Boop

Other

Recordings as The Betty Boop Girl:

Filmography

Trivia

Gallery

See Also

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