Little Ann Little (born Ann L. Rothschild, c. 1909/1910 – October 22, 1981) was an American vaudevillian, voice actress and singer who gained fame in the 1930s as the voice of Betty Boop, taking over the voice from original portrayer

Margie Hines Margaret Louise Hines (October 15, 1909 – December 23, 1985), also known as Marjorie Hines or Margie Hines, was an American voice actress. She was known for her work as a voice artist at Fleischer Studios, where she was the original voice of ...

. From 1931 to 1933, Little Ann Little made recordings for the "Betty Boop" cartoons and tour and appeared in variety shows throughout the country. Rothschild got the job as the voice of Betty Boop as the result of a contest held by Paramount Pictures for a girl with a squeaky voice. She was also well suited for the role physically, being only four foot ten and weighing 100 pounds. Little went on the road with the Fleischer Studios artist Pauline Comanor. Ann would pose while Pauline drew her as Betty Boop. They both finished the act with a "boop-boop-a-doop." Little had started in show business in 1925 as a member of the pony chorus with the Greenwich Village Follies. She was also an

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

discovery and at one time had her own program on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

network as singer Little Ann Little.

Personal life

After her show business career was finished, Little moved to

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

with her husband, who was a retired employee of Consolidated Edison. In the late 1940s, she was an instructor at the Pauline Buhner School of Dance there, where she taught acting, singing and dancing. Little studied the Bible, with the goal of becoming an ordained minister and to preach the Gospel."Betty Boop Studying for the Ministry"
''Evening Independent'' (October 2, 1948) From 1954, Little was ordained as minister in the Unity Church of Christianity. Little died at the age of 71 in Fort Myers, Florida on October 22, 1981.

References

External links

*
Chunkymonkey.com Pauline Comanor's website

Little Ann Rothschild - Is There a Doctor in the House?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Ann Actresses from New York (state) American film actresses American voice actresses Fleischer Studios people Vaudeville performers 20th-century births 1981 deaths 20th-century American actresses