Who is anyone these days? If people are shocked that the iconic cartoon character Betty Boop was originally named Nan McGrew or Nancy Lee, then how will they feel when we reveal the truth behind weird fiction author Betty Rocksteady? Do they realise that Rocksteady is in fact a sheet-welder from Wisconsin, known in the local bars as Acetylene Lil? Or that her love of cats is due to a chance encounter with a handsome but troubled anaesthetist on the set of ‘General Hospital’ in the September of 1998? We think not, but read the interview further down and judge for yourself…
Slightly unlike Betty Rocksteady, Betty Boop (created by animator Max Fleischer) began her career in 1930, and her ‘real’ identity was once another conundrum. In 1932, singer Helen Kane filed a lawsuit, claiming that the cartoon Betty was based on Kane’s style and signature vocals.
It was, however, decided that Kane had drawn her own act from that of Esther Jones (‘Baby Esther’), a black singer and entertainer of the late 1920s, known for her “baby” singing style, who performed regularly at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Kane appeared to start booping only after seeing Esther perform in 1928. As the defence could also add in the Betty Boop look of actress Clara Bow to confuse matters, Kane lost her case.
So Betty and her “boop boop a doop” originated with the African American Baby Esther. Which is neat. And bearing self-interest in mind, we can add that the disreputable John Linwood Grant writes about one of the Cotton Club’s smaller rivals, a black and tan on the edge of Harlem in the late 1920s. The joint was known to Mamma Lucy, the conjure-woman, and Baby Esther would have sung there:
The smooth tones of the saxophone; the taste of cigarette smoke under her tongue. Late Monday night at the Ivory Club, and she was almost ready to fall towards her bed. A last dancer sat on the edge of the stage, listening to the sax and trying to pick gum off the sole of one of her shoes. There were only ten or eleven patrons left.
“Anything here you can’t handle, Marcel? she asked the thin man at her side.
He shook his head. “Lieutenant Chase is crying into his martini again, that’s about the worst of it.”
“Have one of the girl find him a cab.”
“Sure, Miss Garvey.”
She glanced around, checking those shadowy corners of the club where deals were made and hearts broken. Under the peeling stucco of a fake arch, a large man sat protectively over a brandy bottle and a half-empty glass. She peered through the lingering smoke.
“Who’s that guy?”
Her manager hesitated. “Some limey. Been here a few nights, on and off.”
“Trouble?”
“Maybe if someone pokes him. Hettie tried it on with him, says he growled and gave her the hard eye.”
“Hmm.”
Hettie was a pure-gold package, a dancer with the face, body and voice for Broadway. No-one turned her away. Intrigued, she wandered over to the arch and perched on a chair at the man’s table.
“Florence Garvey,” she said softly. “The owner of the Ivory Club.”
‘Hoodoo Man’, Speakeasies & Spiritualists (18thWall Productions)
All this gives us an excuse to quickly insert one of our favourite Betty Boop clips, because the voice of Koko the clown is none other than Cab Calloway, another more famous African American performer closely associated with the Cotton Club:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDATXtewPrg
Incidentally, Helen Kane was also an actress – she starred in the comedy film Dangerous Nan McGrew, from which Boop’s earlier name was borrowed.
The film title was, of course, borrowed in turn from Robert Service’s poem, almost as iconic as Betty Boop, ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew’ (Songs of a Sourdough, 1907).
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o’-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.
There was none could place the stranger’s face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.
Some rather interesting stuff on Dangerous Dan McGrew can be found here – well worth a look:
http://hougengroup.com/yukon-history/yukon-nuggets/who-was-dan-mcgrew/
Right, then. We’d better get back to the plot. Lacking our own Dan McGrew, today we have Duane Pesice with us, as he interviews Betty Rocksteady…
BETTY ROCKSTEADY BOOPS
by Duane Pesice
Duane: Where should a reader that is new to your work start?
Betty: My collection In Dreams We Rot coming in October 2019 is gonna be a great Rocksteady starting place, featuring a mishmash of my brand of surreal and sometimes extreme nightmarish horror. Until then, I would point you towards The Writhing Skies, my cosmic sex horror novella that won This Is Horror’s Novella of the Year and has been nominated for the Splatterpunk Awards.
Duane: Is there a piece that you are particularly proud of?
Betty: One of the first things I wrote that I was really proud of was Dusk Urchin, originally published in Looming Low. It hits on the black-eyed children trope but with my unique flavor. I really started thinking about how backstory can be hinted at, giving you a full impression of a character’s history without actually stating a lot outright. I also worked on tightening dread even before the supernatural elements come into play, with the goal of making the reader tense as hell without even knowing why.
I’m also super proud of The Writhing Skies and the illustrations I did for it. It deals with some traumatic topics blended with surrealism.
Duane: Whose work do you read, yourself?
Betty: I just finished rereading V C Andrews Flowers In The Attic, which is one of my all time favorites. I love the gothic melodrama and insane twists and turns. Next up is The Trap by Tabitha King, another limited-setting book that I first read in high school.
Paul Tremblay and John Langan are favorites. I also dig Mo Hayder and Gemma Files.
Danger Slater just released Impossible James and I’m stoked to read it. I’m super into Dark Moon Digest and read every issue cover to cover.
Duane: What kind of beer goes with your pizza? And what’s on the pizza?
Betty: Not a huge drinker, just drink the ol’ soda pop with my pizza. Fave pizza has mushrooms and honestly whatever else on it. I’m not too picky.
Duane: Do you consider your work weird, or horror? Or do you leave that to the marketing department?
Betty: Weird and horror are pretty close sisters, and I think my work hovers around the borders of each. The speculative element is important to my writing, and something horrific usually happens but stylistically I bounce around between literary, extreme/splatterpunk, bizarro. Sometimes I’ll have a style in mind when I start writing (especially if it’s for a call or particular market) and sometimes I just write and whatever happens, happens.
Duane: You’ve been convicted of crimes against the empire. What would be your last meal? Include something big to hide the explosives in.
Betty: This is such a weird question! I feel like I should have some funny cool answer but uh, I dunno. I can eat a lot! Some sort of giant all you can eat buffet and I’ll just stuff myself stupid. Pasta, sushi, sweets, everybody.
Duane: Are you involved in any arts besides writing? Any odd hobbies we should know about?
Betty: Yep, I draw too. Used to do a lot of pen and ink stuff, meticulous little crosshatching occult sort of designs, lately more into a 1920s cartoon style on my iPad. I illustrated The Writhing Skies with 20 black and white illustrations, done in a mix of Edward Gorey/20s cartoon style and I think it added a really interesting contrast to the disgusting things going on in the book.
As far as odd hobbies, nothing too crazy. I spend my free time looking for cool dumb junk at thrift stores, playing Just Dance and laying around watching old cartoons on VHS.
Duane: Cats or dogs?
Betty: Anyone who follows me on social media can probably guess that I’m a total cat lady. I have three (Ripley, Ozma and Henrietta) and oh, just remembered another odd hobby – I love to go for walks or hang out in my neighborhood and take pictures of any cats I see.
Duane: Tell us about a work-in-progress.
Betty: So right now I’m working on a novel that’s a modern take on The Collector by John Fowles, where Plain Jane is sick of her social medial persona and is totally thrilled to be kidnapped and set up in a cool room where she can do whatever she wants and not have to worry about bills and rent and work and people-pleasing. But then she realizes she may have underestimated her kidnapper, and faceless queens haunt her dreams, and the walls start closing in.
Duane: Thanks for joinng us. Is there anything else you would like readers to know?
Betty: Yeah, I’ve just started a new podcast with my buddy Popeye Otaku called Popcast, so keep an eye out for that! We’re reading the original Popeye comic strips and they’re really weird and fun, and Troy has some great Popeye impressions.
Otherwise, follow me on twitter @bettyrocksteady or look me up on facebook or check out www.bettyrocksteady.com to find out more.
We reviewed Betty Rocksteady’s The Writhing Skies on here last month:
http://greydogtales.com/blog/quiet-and-writhing-horrors-for-all-tastes/