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. 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. 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. In 1934, Esther, billed as "The Sepia Dancing Doll", appeared with Helena Justa's Harlem Maniacs revue. 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." Esther made another Philadelphia appearance in September at a benefit for the Douglass Hospital, hosted by the famed dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Notably, Robinson also taught Helena Justa and Florence Mills. Esther has been verified as giving routine performances as late as September 1934, but her later activities are unknown. In 1934, she may have been 12 or 13 years old, as her age was reported as seven in June 1928 and in March 1929; or she may have been 15 or 16, as other articles from 1929 describe Esther as 10 years old; and an article during the week of August 22, 1931, seems to say that she was 12 then. Kane v. Fleischer In 1930, Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick introduced a caricature of Helen Kane—a singer known since 1923 for her baby voice and for replacing lyrics with noises, and later for her signature phrase "boop-oop-a-doop"—in the form of an anthropomorphic singing dog with droopy ears and a squeaky singing voice, in the Talkartoons cartoon Dizzy Dishes. "Betty Boop", as the character