Margie Hines

Name:

Margie Hines
Margy Hines
Marjory Hines
Marjorie Louise Hines
Margaret Hines
Margret Mercer
Margie Mercer
Olive Oyl (referenced by Jack Mercer)
The Original Betty Boop
Marjorie Brenneis
Marjorie Heidtmann

Marjorie L. Hines (October 15, 1909 – December 23, 1985) was an American actress. She was better known by her stage name Margie Hines. She was born in in Glendale, New York, USA. She later moved to Freeport, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island. She was a voice actress who was already with Fleischer Studios long before they had auditioned more women to do the voice of Betty Boop. Hines created the initial voice for Betty Boop by using her own baby-talk speaking and singing style.

She had blue eyes and jet-black hair, Hines later dyed her hair blonde.

Hines was the first voice actress for Fleischer’s popular Betty Boop and is classed as the original voice of said character, which debuted in the cartoon short Dizzy Dishes in 1930.

While she was touring in vaudeville, she was heard by Billy Murray, a member of the Fleischer staff who there and then found what they were seeking for Betty Boop. They talked business, and Max Fleischer hired Hines to perform “I Have To Have You”, as she was a Helen Kane sound-alike and Kane was the basis for the character.

Hines won a “Helen Kane Impersonation Contest” in Brooklyn at the age of 17, and was given a part in a song-and-dance act which toured the country on Publix, Keith, Loew and Fox time.

According to Hines, she won a Helen Kane contest in 1929, and began work for the Fleischer Studios in May, 1930, not only giving voice to Betty, but other female characters in the Talkartoon and Screen Songs series. Hines voiced Betty until her contract with Paramount expired. In 1931, Hines shared the role of Betty Boop with Mae Questel, up until Questel became the official voice of Betty Boop in 1932.

On the evening of September 25th in 1931, at the radio show for the Radio Electrical World Fair in Madison Square Garden, Max Fleischer broadcast the face of Hines and also a cartoon of Betty Boop, which he drew before a television apparatus. Fleischer said, “I will introduce to you the voice behind the picture, Miss Margie Hines.”

According to lawsuit documents, Hines recorded all of the dialogue for several of the 1932 cartoons in 1931. However according to Max Fleischer, Hines actually recorded for one or two of the cartoons in 1932 before leaving the role with her final role as Betty Boop being I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You.

In 1931, she subsequently sang baby-talk songs for several Paul Terry shorts. By the Sea being the most well-known. Hines provided the voice of a mouse that performs the song “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” in that short.

Hines recorded her “final cartoon” for the Fleischers as Betty on the 11th of August in 1932.

In 1932 Miss Hines exclusively signed a contract with Van Beuren Studios to voice characters in their animated cartoons. In one Van Beuren short, Hines sang a cover of “I Must Have That Man,” a “Blackbirds” song most famously connected to Florence Mills and Nina Mae McKinney.

On the 8th of April in 1932, Hines and Billy Murray both appeared at the Baldwin G.O.P. Benefit at the Baldwin Republican Club at the Freeport Theatre.

Marjorie Hines & Fred L. Barber

Hines and other vaudeville acts donated more than $500 for the “Baldwin Community Service” for unemployment relief. When Hines joined Charley Gaylord’s band in 1934, for a short time she ditched her “Betty Boop” singing style. In 1938, Hines was cast as Olive Oyl and was re-cast as Betty Boop in the Fleischer Studios cartoons.

She was the last person to voice Betty in the animated series up until the character was retired in 1939, the same year she married Jack Mercer. Hines continued to do voice-overs for Fleischer Studios which was later known as Famous Studios up until 1944, then she retired from voice work. According to a 1943 article, she may have gone into defense work while Mercer was away.

Hines became an employee of the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation at Bethpage, Long Island, an organization that produced military and civilian aircraft. In 1944, on Sunday, March 12, at 4:00 p.m., she appeared on Eddie Dowling’s “Wide Horizons” show over on the Mutual Network as a guest speaker with Jack Mercer.

Before Hines entered the entertainment field, she was employed as an office worker in New York. Her marriage to Jack Mercer ended in heartbreak.

She married Raymond Brenneis in 1951 and became Marjorie L. Brenneis, but divorced in 1954. Hines then went on to marry Jesse Heidtmann in 1956 and became Marjorie L. Heidtmann.

Quotes:

Margie Hines: “Oh, I like the show business. But too many heartaches in it. Too much uncertainty.“

Helen Kane: “Margie Hines won three Boop-Boop-a-Doop contests. I think she won one of them or two in Brooklyn, and one at the Riverside Theatre, New York City. Let me see, where was I? In 1931, I should say, or 1932. I don’t remember?“

Margie Hines: “My uncle told me that there was a contest at a theatre in Brooklyn and he urged me to enter.“

Margie Hines: “I sang in my own baby-voice.” ($250,000 Infringement Lawsuit)

Margie Hines: “We’ve started three times since March, but every time we got half packed, the Fleischer Studios called us back.”

211-WMRJ-Jamaica-1,420 Radio:

10:15 p.m. – Margie Hines. (02, April, 1929)
11:00 p.m. – Margie Hines, Harold Smith and Flo Orig. (09, April, 1929)
8:30 p.m. – Margie Hines and Johnny Welter. (19, April, 1929)
10:40 p.m. – Margie Hines. (09, May, 1929)

Filmography:

1930:

Dizzy Dishes
Barnacle Bill
Mysterious Mose
Accordion Joe
Grand Uproar

1931:

By the Sea
Popcorn
Go West, Big Boy
Bimbo’s Initiation
Minding the Baby
In the Shade of the Old Apple Sauce
The Herring Murder Case
Bimbo’s Express
Minding the Baby
Mask-A-Raid
Jack and the Beanstalk
Dizzy Red Riding Hood
Kitty from Kansas City
Little Annie Rooney
My Wife’s Gone to the Country
That Old Gang of Mine

1932:

The Perfect Suitor
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie
Any Rags?
Boop-Oop-a-Doop
Swim or Sink
The Dancing Fool
A Hunting We Will Go
Betty Boop’s Bizzy Bee
I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You
The Farmerette
Wild Goose Chase
A Yarn of Wool
Bugs and Books
Hokum Hotel
Pickaninny Blues
Venice Vamp
A Cat-Fish Romance
Piano Tooners
Pencil Mania

1933:

Strange Case of Hennessy
Harry Warren: America’s Foremost Composer
Tight Rope Tricks
Magic Mummy
Silvery Moon
Candy Town
Tumble Down Town
In the Park
Opening Night
Love’s Labor Won

1936:

Barnyard Amateurs

1938:

Sally Swing
On with the New
Thrills and Chills
Plumbing is a Pipe
The Jeep
All’s Fair at the Fair

1939:

My Friend the Monkey
So Does an Automobile
Musical Mountaineers
The Scared Crows
Rhythm on the Reservation
Cops Is Always Right
Gulliver’s Travels
Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp
Leave Well Alone
Ghosks Is the Bunk
It’s the Natural Thing to Do
Never Sock a Baby

1940:

Shakespearean Spinach
Females Is Fickle
Stealin Aint Honest
Me Feelins Is Hurt
Onion Pacific
Wimmin Is a Myskery
Nurse-Mates
Fightin’ Pals
Doing Impossikible Stunts
Wimmin Hadn’t Oughta Drive
Puttin on the Act
With Poopdeck Pappy
Little Lambkins
The Fulla Bluff Man
Way Back When Women Had Their Weigh
Way Back When a Nag Was Only a Horse
Granite Hotel
The Fowl Ball Player
Wedding Belts

1941:

Olive’s Sweepstakes Ticket
Child Psykolojiky
I’ll Never Crow Again
Nix on Hypnotricks
Mr. Bug Goes to Town’

1942:

Kickin’ the Conga ‘Round
Olive Oyl and Water Don’t Mix
Many Tanks
Baby Wants a Bottleship
Alona on the Sarong Seas

1943:

Ration Fer the Duration
Happy Birthdaze
Cartoons Ain’t Human
The Marry-Go-Round

Death:

Hines died under the name Marjorie L. Heidtmann age 76, in Seaford, New York in December 1985. She was survived by her husband Jesse William Heidtmann, who died in June 1997 at the age of 79.

Trivia:

Hines recorded the dialogue for a majority of the 1932 cartoons in 1931.

Apart from singing in the “Boop-Boop-a-Doop” singing style, Hines was also an opera singer and could sing in the operatic style. She can be heard singing in this style in the Fleischer Studios cartoon Grand Uproar and the Van Beuren Studios cartoons that include Hokum Hotel, Piano Tooners, Magic Mummy, Venice Vamp, Barnyard Amateurs and Opening Night.

Little Ann Little claimed she was the original voice but hadn’t debuted into the role until 1933.

Hines’ mother “Cecilia Bassa” once owned a tea room called “Betty Boop” in Freeport.

Hines also provided the voice of Betty in the Betty Boop Fables radio show, which was shared with Questel and Bonnie Poe.

Like Mae Questel, Hines also did impersonations of ZaSu Pitts and Mae West.

Margie was five feet and-a-half small and weighed 98-odd pounds.

Margie also “Boop-a-Dooped” from station Pittsburgh Station KDKA and received numerous fan letters.

Margie was from Wantagh, Long Island.

Was featured in a 1932 Warner Brothers film titled The Perfect Suitor, as the leading lady.

She also did the voice for Olive Oyl from the Popeye series for a short while.

From 1939 to the early 1940s, Hines was briefly married to co-star Jack Mercer, who provided the voice of Popeye the Sailor. The two were later divorced.

When she was married to Jack Mercer, he would tell people that he was married to Olive Oyl.

Hines was the first and last person to voice Betty Boop.

Margie Hines also lent her voice to many Fleischer Studios cartoons, including the Stone Age Cartoons as various characters including the feature film Mr Bug Goes To Town. She also had a small part in Gulliver’s Travels, as a female Lilliput citizen, and contributed to the main character Princess Glory’s crying and sobs.

In 1932, Hines also did vocals for Aesop’s Film Fables, produced by Van Beuren Studios. Her Van Beuren credits were erroneously attributed to Bonnie Poe, another actress who had voiced Betty Boop.

Margie Hines’ name has been mispelled/changed in various credits: Margie Heinz, Margie Heintz, Marge Hines, Marjorie Hines, Margaret Hines and sometimes Margret Hines. The L. in her middle name is Louise.

Hines was paid tribute and or referenced alongside her ex-husband Jack Mercer on Reddit, on the 24th of March 2015.