Cab Calloway

Cabell Calloway III was born in Rochester, New York, on December 25, 1907, to an African American family.{{Cite news|url=https://aaregistry.org/story/cab-calloway-timeless-top-flight-musician-and-singer/|title=Cab Calloway, timeless top-flight musician and singer – African American Registry|work=African American Registry|access-date=October 19, 2018|language=en-US}} His father, Cabell Calloway Jr., graduated from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in 1898. His mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a Morgan State College graduate, teacher, and church organist,Shipton, Alyn. Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway. Oxford University Press, 2010.Lincoln University of Pennsylvania Alumni Directory 1995. Harris Publishing Co. 1995, p. 142. and worked as a lawyer and in real estate. The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1919.{{cite news |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bs-ae-zontv-calloway-20120224-story.html |title=PBS treats Baltimore's Cab Calloway as an American Master |first=David |last=Zurawik |date=February 27, 2012 |work=The Baltimore Sun |publisher=Baltimore Sun Media Group |access-date=September 21, 2017 |archive-date=September 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921193943/http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bs-ae-zontv-calloway-20120224-story.html }} Soon after, his father died and his mother remarried to John Nelson Fortune.{{Cite book|last1=Hildebrand|first1=David K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tx4zDwAAQBAJ&q=Martha+Eulalia+Reed+John+Nelson+Fortune&pg=PA137|title=Musical Maryland: A History of Song and Performance from the Colonial Period to the Age of Radio|last2=Schaaf|first2=Elizabeth M.|publisher=JHU Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-4214-2240-4|pages=137–138|language=en}}

Calloway grew up in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Druid Hill. He often skipped school to earn money by selling newspapers, shining shoes, and cooling down horses at the Pimlico racetrack where he developed an interest in racing and gambling on horses.{{Cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/11/19/Big-Band-leader-Calloway-dies-at-86/2549785221200/|title=Big Band leader Calloway dies at 86|date=November 19, 1994|website=UPI|language=en}}{{Cite book|last1=Gates (Jr.)|first1=Henry Louis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E_vRLcgEdGoC&q=camay+calloway+1927+zelma+proctor&pg=PA98|title=Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography|last2=Higginbotham|first2=Evelyn Brooks|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-538795-7|page=98|language=en}} After he was caught playing dice on the church steps, his mother sent him to Downingtown Industrial and Agricultural School in 1921, a reform school run by his mother's uncle in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

Calloway resumed hustling when he returned to Baltimore and worked as a caterer while he improved his education in school. He began private vocal lessons in 1922, and studied music throughout his formal schooling. Despite his parents' and teachers' disapproval of jazz, he began performing in nightclubs in Baltimore. His mentors included drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones. Calloway joined his high school basketball team, and in his senior year he started playing professional basketball with the Baltimore Athenians, a team in the Negro Professional Basketball League.{{cite news |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1994/11/20/cab-calloways-memoirs-tell-story-of-growing-up-in-a-segregated-baltimore/ |title=Cab Calloway's memoirs tell story of growing up in a segregated Baltimore |date=November 20, 1994 |first1=Linell |last1=Smith |first2=Fred |last2=Rasmussen |work=The Baltimore Sun |access-date=September 21, 2017}} He graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1925.{{cite web |url=http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/17999 |title=Alumni |work=The Historic Frederick Douglass High School |publisher=Baltimore County Public School |access-date=September 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921192726/http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/17999 |archive-date=September 21, 2017 }}

In 1927, Calloway joined his older sister, Blanche Calloway, on tour for the popular black musical revue Plantation Days. His sister became an accomplished bandleader before him, and he often credited her as his inspiration for entering show business.{{Cite web|last=Lloyd|first=Robin|title=Black History Month: The Bold Blanche Calloway|url=https://www.knkx.org/post/black-history-month-bold-blanche-calloway|access-date=March 26, 2021|website=www.knkx.org|date=February 25, 2021|language=en}} Calloway's mother wanted him to be a lawyer like his father, so once the tour ended he enrolled at Crane College in Chicago, but he was more interested in singing and entertaining. While at Crane he refused the opportunity to play basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters to pursue a singing career.

Calloway spent most of his nights at ‘Black and tan clubs’ such as Chicago's Dreamland Café, Sunset Cafe, and Club Berlin, performing as a singer, drummer, and master of ceremonies. At Sunset Cafe, he was an understudy for singer Adelaide Hall. There he met and performed with Louis Armstrong, who taught him to sing in the scat style. He left school to sing with the Alabamians band.{{cite news |last1=Ossman |first1=David |title=Cab Calloway: 'A Hi De Ho Centennial'|url=https://www.npr.org/2007/12/26/17408371/cab-calloway-a-hi-de-ho-centennial|newspaper=NPR.org |access-date=June 16, 2021}}

In 1929, Calloway relocated to New York with the band. They opened at the Savoy Ballroom on September 20, 1929. When the Alabamians broke up, Armstrong recommended Calloway as a replacement singer in the musical revue Connie's Hot Chocolates. He established himself as a vocalist singing "Ain't Misbehavin'" by Fats Waller.{{Cite magazine|date=August 14, 1993|title=Catchin' Cab: The Magic of Calloway|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BEEAAAAMBAJ&q=cab&pg=PA61|magazine=Billboard|page=3}} While Calloway was performing in the revue, the Missourians asked him to front their band.{{Cite book|last=McClellan|first=Lawrence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oit7y0bS4MUC&q=savoy+cab+calloway+1929&pg=PA90|title=The Later Swing Era, 1942 to 1955|date=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-30157-5|page=90|language=en}}

In 1930, the Missourians became known as Cab Calloway and His Orchestra. At the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York, the band was hired in 1931 to substitute for the Duke Ellington Orchestra while Ellington's band was on tour. Their popularity led to a permanent position. The band also performed twice a week for radio broadcasts on NBC. Calloway appeared on radio programs with Walter Winchell and Bing Crosby and was the first African American to have a nationally syndicated radio show. During the depths of the Great Depression, Calloway was earning $50,000 a year at 23 years old.File:Cab Calloway as Bandleader (Van Vechten portrait -2).jpg, 1933|alt=]]In 1931, Calloway recorded his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher". It was the first single record by an African American to sell a million copies. Calloway performed the song and two others, "St. James Infirmary Blues" and "The Old Man of the Mountain", in the Betty Boop cartoons Minnie the Moocher (1932), Snow-White (1933), and The Old Man of the Mountain (1933). Calloway performed voice-over for these cartoons, and through rotoscoping, his dance steps were the basis of the characters' movements.{{Cite web|url=https://laughingsquid.com/how-rotoscope-cab-calloway-changed-animation/|title=How the Rotoscope and Cab Calloway Changed the Way Animated Characters Move|date=December 4, 2019|website=Laughing Squid|language=en-US}}

As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher", Calloway became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man".{{cite news|author=Wilson, John S.|title=Cab Calloway Is Dead at 86; 'Hi-de-hi-de-ho' Jazz Man|work=The New York Times|date=November 20, 1994|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/20/obituaries/cab-calloway-is-dead-at-86-hi-de-hi-de-ho-jazz-man.html|access-date=July 6, 2019}} He performed in the 1930s in a series of short films for Paramount. Calloway's and Ellington's groups were featured on film more than any other jazz orchestras of the era. In these films, Calloway can be seen performing a gliding backstep dance move, which some observers have described as the precursor to Michael Jackson's moonwalk. Calloway said 50 years later, "it was called The Buzz back then."{{cite journal |last=DiLorenzo |first=Kris |date=April 1985 |title=The Arts. Dance: Michael Jackson did not invent the Moonwalk |journal=The Crisis |volume=92 |number=4 |issn=0011-1422 |page=143 |quote=Shoot ... We did that back in the 1930s! Only it was called The Buzz back then.}} The 1933 film International House featured Calloway performing his classic song, "Reefer Man", a tune about a man who smokes marijuana.{{cite web |url=http://www.heptune.com/calloway.html |title=Works of Cab Calloway, Jazz Artist |access-date=January 22, 2013}} Fredi Washington was cast as Calloway's love interest in Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934).{{Cite book|last1=Bracks|first1=Lean'tin L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyMvBQAAQBAJ&q=Hi-De-Ho+fredi+washington+1934&pg=PA239|title=Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era|last2=Smith|first2=Jessie Carney|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2014|isbn=978-0-8108-8543-1|page=234|language=en}} Lena Horne made her film debut as a dancer in Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935).{{Cite book|last=Lefkovitz|first=Aaron|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3UIyDwAAQBAJ&q=Cab+Calloway%27s+Jitterbug+Party+lena+horne&pg=PA5|title=Transnational Cinematic and Popular Music Icons: Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, and Queen Latifah, 1917–2017|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2017|isbn=978-1-4985-5576-0|page=5|language=en}}

Calloway made his first Hollywood feature film appearance opposite Al Jolson in The Singing Kid (1936). He sang several duets with Jolson, and the film included Calloway's band and 22 Cotton Club dancers from New York.Shipton, Alyn. Hi-de-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway, Oxford University Press (2010), p. 97. According to film critic Arthur Knight, the creators of the film intended to "erase and celebrate boundaries and differences, including most emphatically the color line...when Calloway begins singing in his characteristic style – in which the words are tools for exploring rhythm and stretching melody – it becomes clear that American culture is changing around Jolson and with (and through) Calloway".Knight, Arthur. Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film, Duke University Press (2002), pp. 72–76.[http://jolsonville.com/2011/02/16/jolson-and-cab-calloway-in-the-singing-kid/ "Jolson and Cab Calloway in 'The Singing Kid'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819022955/http://jolsonville.com/2011/02/16/jolson-and-cab-calloway-in-the-singing-kid/ |date=August 19, 2011 }}, A Tribute to Al Jolson.{{rp|watch}}

In 1938, Calloway released Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary, the first dictionary published by an African American. It became the official jive language reference book of the New York Public Library.{{Cite web|url=https://flashbak.com/cab-calloways-hepsters-dictionary-a-guide-to-the-language-of-jive-1938-378657/|title=Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary: A Guide To The Language Of Jive (1938)|last=Sorene|first=Paul|date=April 26, 2017|website=Flashbak|language=en-US}} A revised version of the book was released with Professor Cab Calloway's Swingformation Bureau in 1939. He released the last edition, The New Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive, in 1944.{{Cite book|last=Alvarez|first=Luis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e6gwDwAAQBAJ&q=cab+calloway+|title=The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance During World War II|publisher=Univ of California Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-520-26154-9|pages=02–93|language=en}} On a BBC Radio documentary about the dictionary in 2014, Poet Lemn Sissay stated, "Cab Calloway was taking ownership of language for a people who, just a few generations before, had their own languages taken away."{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/news/the-hepster-dictionary-was-the-first-dictionary-written-by-an-african-american|title=The 'Hepster Dictionary' Was the First Dictionary Written By an African American|last=Blakemore|first=Erin|date=August 1, 2017|website=History|language=en}}

Calloway's band in the 1930s and 1940s included many notable musicians, such as Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet, Milt Hinton, Danny Barker, Doc Cheatham, Ed Swayze, Cozy Cole, Eddie Barefield, and Dizzy Gillespie. Calloway later recalled, "What I expected from my musicians was what I was selling: the right notes with precision, because I would build a whole song around a scat or dance step." Calloway and his band formed baseball and basketball teams.[http://www.coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/images/teamlarge/1930s_cab_calloway_lg.jpg Photograph of Cab Calloway's band's team] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100726071220/http://coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/images/teamlarge/1930s_cab_calloway_lg.jpg |date=July 26, 2010 }}, NLBE Museum, Kansas State University[http://www.jazzbiographies.com/Biography.aspx?ID=2069 "Cab Calloway"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928173643/http://www.jazzbiographies.com/Biography.aspx?ID=2069 |date=September 28, 2013 }}, Jazz Biographies. They played each other while on the road, play against local semi-pro teams, and play charity games.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/rare-footage-duke-ellington-highlights-when-jazz-baseball-were-perfect-harmony-180950303/|title=Rare Footage of Duke Ellington Highlights When Jazz and Baseball Were in Perfect Harmony|last=Hasse|first=John Edward|date=April 1, 2014|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}

In 1941, Calloway fired Gillespie from his orchestra after an onstage fracas erupted when Calloway was hit with spitballs. He wrongly accused Gillespie, who stabbed Calloway in the leg with a small knife.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-rSc6g9RQ0C&pg=PA57 |author=Alyn Shipton |title=Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie |page=74 |access-date=January 22, 2013|isbn=978-0-19-534938-2 |date=July 19, 2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}

From 1941 to 1942, Calloway hosted a weekly radio quiz show called The Cab Calloway Quizzicale.{{Cite book|last=Ford|first=Phil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iMJpAgAAQBAJ&q=The+Cab+Calloway+Quizzicale+1941&pg=PA46|title=Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-993992-3|pages=46–48|language=en}} Calling himself "Doctor" Calloway, it was a parody of The College of Musical Knowledge, a radio contest created by bandleader Kay Kyser.{{Cite book|last1=Wintz|first1=Cary D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6Cs0Y1pvRAC&q=The+Cab+Calloway+Quizzicale++the+College+of+Musical+Knowledge&pg=PA207|title=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: A-J|last2=Finkelman|first2=Paul|date=2004|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-57958-457-3|page=207|language=en}} During the years of World War II, Calloway entertained troops in United States before they departed overseas.{{cite news|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/cab-calloway|title=Calloway, Cab|publisher=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=December 21, 2020}} The Calloway Orchestra also recorded songs full of social commentary including "Doing the Reactionary," "The Führer's Got the Jitters,"{{cite news|url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-fuehrers-got-the-jitters-mt0030387664|title=Cab Calloway & His Orchestra:The Fuehrer's Got the Jitters|publisher=All Music.com|access-date=December 21, 2020}} "The Great Lie," "We'll Gather Lilacs," and "My Lament for V Day."{{cite news|url=https://www.cabcalloway.cc/notes_of_interest.htm|title=The Cab Calloway Orchestra: Notes of Interest|publisher=Cab Calloway.cc|access-date=December 21, 2020}}

In 1943, Calloway appeared in the film Stormy Weather, one of the first mainstream Hollywood films with a black cast.{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/cab-calloway-sketches/timeline-major-events-in-cabs-life/1994/ |title=Cab Calloway: Sketches — Timeline: Major Events in Cab's Life | American Masters |publisher=PBS |date=February 21, 2012 |access-date=January 22, 2013}} The film featured other top performers of the time, including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lena Horne, the Nicholas Brothers, and Fats Waller. Calloway would host Horne's character Selina Rogers as she performed the film's title song as part of a big all-star revue for World War II soldiers.{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/katherine-dunham/articles-and-essays/notes-on-dunhams-work/stormy-weather/|title=Stormy Weather|author=Selections from the Katherine Dunham Collection|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=December 21, 2020}}

Calloway wrote a humorous pseudo-gossip column called "Coastin' with Cab" for Song Hits magazine. It was a collection of celebrity snippets, such as the following in the May 1946 issue: "Benny Goodman was dining at Ciro's steak house in New York when a very homely girl entered. 'If her face is her fortune,' Benny quipped, 'she'd be tax-free.'" In the late 1940s, however, Calloway's bad financial decisions and his gambling caused his band to break up.File:Cabsuit.jpg on display in Baltimore's City Hall, October 2007]]

Calloway and his daughter Lael recorded "Little Child", an adaption of "Little Boy and the Old Man". Released on ABC-Paramount, the single charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1956.{{Cite magazine|date=February 4, 1956|title=Reviews of New Pop Records|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vB4EAAAAMBAJ&q=little+child+cab+calloway+lael&pg=PA44|magazine=Billboard|page=44}}

For the second season, Lee Sherman was the choreographer of The Cotton Club Revue of 1958, which starred Calloway. The revue featured tap dancing prodigies Maurice Hines and Gregory Hines.{{Cite news|last=Wadler|first=Joyce|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/02/24/hines-on-tap/22fbd9ca-fa60-4455-ba9a-49a7f0ed223e/|title=Hines on Tap|date=February 24, 1985|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}

In March 1958, Calloway released his album Cotton Club Revue of 1958 on Gone Records. It was produced by George Goldner, conducted and arranged by Eddie Barefield. That year, Calloway appeared in the film St. Louis Blues, the life story of W.C. Handy, featuring Nat King Cole and Eartha Kitt.{{Cite journal|date=April 3, 1958|title=Handy's Film Story To Debut In St. Louis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crcDAAAAMBAJ&q=cab+calloway+st+louis+blues+jet&pg=PA61|journal=Jet|page=61}}

The Cotton Club Revue of 1959 traveled to South America for engagements in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. They also stopped in Uruguay and Argentina before returning to North America which included a run on Broadway.{{Cite journal|date=October 22, 1959|title=Cab Calloway returns To Broadway With Fast Revue|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gkEDAAAAMBAJ&q=cab+calloway|journal=Jet|pages=60–61}}

Calloway remained a household name due to TV appearances and occasional concerts in the US and Europe. In 1961 and 1962, he toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, providing halftime entertainment during games.{{Cite journal|date=November 23, 1961|title=New York Beat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=prMDAAAAMBAJ&q=cab+calloway+jet+1961&pg=PA63|journal=Jet|page=63}}{{Cite journal|date=November 22, 1962|title=Cab Calloway Once Invited To Play With Trotters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=07sDAAAAMBAJ&q=cab+calloway+jet+1962&pg=PA54|journal=Jet|page=54}}

Calloway was cast as "Yeller" in the film The Cincinnati Kid (1965) with Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, and Edward G. Robinson. He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on March 19, 1967, with his daughter Chris Calloway.{{cite news|last1=Weideman|first1=Paul|title=Chris Calloway, 1945–2008: Jazz diva gracious in battle with cancer: Singer, bandleader knew 'show must go on'|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/t_WC99NE8RU|access-date= December 14, 2016|work=The New Mexican|date= August 8, 2008}} In 1967, he co-starred with Pearl Bailey as Horace Vandergelder in an all-black cast of Hello, Dolly! on Broadway during its original run. Chris Calloway also joined the cast as Minnie Fay.{{cite news|last1=Lipton|first1=Brian Scott|title=Chris Calloway Dies at 62|url=http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/news/08-2008/chris-calloway-dies-at-62_14880.html|access-date= December 14, 2016|work=TheaterMania|date=August 12, 2008}} The new cast revived the flagging business for the show{{cite book|title=Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy |url=https://archive.org/details/likelampshadeinw00dill |url-access=registration |last1=Diller |first1=Phyllis |author-link1=Phyllis Diller |last2=Buskin |first2=Richard |year=2005 |publisher=Penguin |location=New York |isbn=1-58542-396-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/likelampshadeinw00dill/page/210 210–211]}} Phyllis Diller was later cast in the lead of Hello, Dolly! In her memoir she commented on other cast changes by David Merrick to revive business for the show. and RCA Victor released a new cast recording, rare for the time. In 1973–74, Calloway was featured in an unsuccessful Broadway revival of The Pajama Game with Hal Linden and Barbara McNair.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

His autobiography, Of Minnie the Moocher and Me was published in 1976. It included his complete Hepster's Dictionary as an appendix. In 1978, Calloway released a disco version of "Minnie the Moocher" on RCA Victor which reached the Billboard R&B chart.{{Cite magazine|date=September 16, 1978|title=It's Calloway & 'Minnie' Again|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICQEAAAAMBAJ&q=minnie+the+moocher+billboard+1978&pg=PT59|magazine=Billboard|page=44}} Calloway was introduced to a new generation when he appeared in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers performing "Minnie the Moocher".

In 1985, Calloway and his Orchestra appeared at The Ritz London Hotel where he was filmed for a 60-minute BBC TV show called The Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz. Adelaide Hall, Doc Cheatham, Max Roach, and the Nicholas Brothers also appeared on the bill.[http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/collection/data/79734499 "The Cotton Club remembered (Videotape)"], Beta.worldcat.org, (retrieved September 6, 2014)."Jazz on the Screen — A jazz and blues filmography by David Meeker: [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.jots.200014669/default.html OMNIBUS series Episode The Cotton Club comes to the Ritz"], Library of Congress (retrieved 6 September 2014). A performance with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra directed by Erich Kunzel in August 1988 was recorded on video and features a classic presentation of "Minnie the Moocher", 57 years after he first recorded it.{{YouTube|id=EqxzT4vXc1k|title=Cab Calloway Singing Minnie The Moocher (Live 1988)}}

In January 1990, Calloway performed at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, with the Baltimore Symphony.{{Cite news|last=Considine|first=J.D.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-11-20-1994324012-story.html|title='Hi-De-Ho Man' Cab Calloway dies|date=November 20, 1994|work=The Baltimore Sun}} That year he made a cameo in Janet Jackson's music video "Alright".{{Cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-blackhistory-calloway-story.html|title=Cab Calloway|date=February 28, 2007|website=The Baltimore Sun}} He continued to perform at Jazz festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Greenwood Jazz.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tulsaworld.com/archive/cab-calloway-gives-receptive-greenwood-jazz-crowd-heidi-hi/article_c16aca35-ac04-56ac-a5e6-7a3291a09304.html|title=Cab Calloway Gives Receptive Greenwood Jazz Crowd Heidi Hi|last=Autman|first=Samuel|date=August 13, 1992|website=Tulsa World|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-05-03-9202090168-story.html|title=Crowds Jam New Orleans For Jamming Musicians|last=Reich|first=Howard|website=Chicago Tribune|date=May 3, 1992 |language=en-US}} In 1992, he embarked on a month-long tour of European jazz festivals.{{Cite news|last=Melvin|first=Tessa|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/14/nyregion/cab-calloway-the-loner-and-the-showman.html|title=Cab Calloway: The Loner and the Showman|date=June 14, 1992|work=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} He was booked to headline "The Jazz Connection: The Jewish and African-American Relationship," at New York City's Avery Fisher Hall in 1993, but he pulled out due to a fall at home.{{Cite news|last=Brozan|first=Nadine|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/24/style/chronicle-332093.html|title=Chronicle|date=June 24, 1993|work=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

In January 1927, Calloway had a daughter named Camay with Zelma Proctor, a fellow student.{{Cite book|last1=Jr|first1=Henry Louis Gates|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dXw6gR2GgkC&q=camay+calloway+1927&pg=PA135|title=African American Lives|last2=Higginbotham|first2=Evelyn Brooks|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-988286-1|page=135|language=en}} His daughter was one of the first African-Americans to teach in a white school in Virginia.{{Cite news|last1=Hong|first1=Peter|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/06/17/a-long-career-of-opening-young-minds/092e1ffc-bca9-4c1e-ba12-f76ebc868c25/|title=A Long Career of Opening Young Minds|date=June 17, 1993|newspaper=The Washington Post|last2=Hughes|first2=Leonard|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}} Calloway married his first wife Wenonah "Betty" Conacher in July 1928. They adopted a daughter named Constance and divorced in 1949.{{Cite book|last=Semmes|first=C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oW3JAAAAQBAJ&q=wenonah+conacher&pg=PA57|title=The Regal Theater and Black Culture|publisher=Springer|year=2006|isbn=978-1-4039-8330-5|page=57|language=en}} Calloway married Zulme "Nuffie" MacNeal on October 7, 1949. They lived in Long Beach on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, on the border with neighboring Lido Beach. In the 1950s, Calloway moved his family to Westchester County, New York, where he and Nuffie raised their daughters Chris Calloway (1945–2008),{{Cite web|url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/chris-calloway---jazz-diva-gracious-in-battle-with/article_05eb13a0-afcc-5273-bdfe-057453c2e52b.html|title=Chris Calloway, 1945–2008: Jazz diva gracious in battle with cancer|last=Weideman|first=Paul|date=August 8, 2008|website=Santa Fe New Mexican|language=en}} Cecilia "Lael" Eulalia Calloway,{{Cite journal|date=June 14, 1964|title=Calloway's Daughter Makes Debut|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8EDAAAAMBAJ&q=calloway|journal=Jet|page=40}} and Cabella Calloway (1952–2023).

Calloway was an Episcopalian.{{cite news |author=Matthew O. Skrod | title=Lift Every Voice and Swing: A Review |newspaper=The Dartmouth Review | date=2022-01-09 | url=https://dartreview.com/lift-every-voice-and-swing-a-review/ | access-date=2024-08-05}}

In December 1945, Calloway and his friend Felix H. Payne Jr. were beaten by a police officer, William E. Todd, and arrested in Kansas City, Missouri after attempting to visit bandleader Lionel Hampton at the whites-only Pla-Mor Ballroom. They were taken to the hospital for injuries, then charged with intoxication and resisting arrest. When Hampton learned of the incident he refused to continue the concert.{{Cite news|url=https://www.kansascity.com/latest-news/article295323/CLUBS-CAB-CALLOWAY.html|title=Clubs Cab Calloway|date=December 23, 1945|work=The Kansas City Star}} Todd said he was informed by the manager, who did not recognize Calloway, that they were attempting to enter. He claimed they refused to leave and struck him. Calloway and Payne denied his claims and maintained they had been sober; the charges were dismissed. In February 1946, six civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, demanded that Todd be fired, but he had already resigned after a pay cut.{{Cite web|url=https://kansascitytheater.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/a-case-of-black-and-white-the-night-they-beat-up-cab-calloway-and-gave-kansas-city-a-black-eye/|title=A Case of Black and White: The Night They Beat Up Cab Calloway and Gave Kansas City a Black Eye|last=Trussell|first=Robert|date=February 6, 2012|website=Stage & Scream in Kansas City|language=en|access-date=February 29, 2020}}

In 1952, Calloway was arrested in Leesburg, Virginia on his way to the race track in Charles Town, West Virginia. He was charged with speeding and attempted bribery of a policeman.{{Cite journal|date=April 3, 1952|title=Cab Calloway Arrested For Speeding|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J0MDAAAAMBAJ&q=can+calloway+arrested+jet&pg=PA59|journal=Jet|page=59}}

On June 12, 1994, Calloway suffered a stroke at his home in Westchester County, New York. He died five months later from pneumonia on November 18, 1994, at the age of 86, at a nursing home in Hockessin, Delaware. He was survived by his wife, who died in 2008, five daughters, and seven grandsons. Calloway was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Music critics have written of his influence on later generations of entertainers such as James Brown, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, as well as modern-day hip-hop performers.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/cab-calloway-sketches/watch-the-full-documentary/1999/|title=Cab Calloway|year=2012|work=American Masters|publisher=PBS|access-date=July 6, 2019}} John Landis, who directed Calloway in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, stated, "Cab Calloway is hip-hop." Journalist Timothy White noted in Billboard (August 14, 1993): "No living pathfinder in American popular music or its jazz and rock 'n' roll capillaries is so frequently emulated yet so seldom acknowledged as Cabell "Cab" Calloway. He arguably did more things first and better than any other band leader of his generation."

In 1998, the Cab Calloway Orchestra directed by Calloway's grandson Chris "CB" Calloway Brooks was formed.{{Cite web|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/chris-calloway-brooks-keeps-the-hi-de-ho-in-the-family/|title=Chris Calloway Brooks Keeps the "Hi-De-Ho" in the Family|last=Effros|first=Barbara|date=September 1, 2016|website=The Syncopated Times|language=en-US}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cabcalloway.cc/callowayorch.htm|title=Calloway Orchestra|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831084954/http://www.cabcalloway.cc/callowayorch.htm|archive-date=August 31, 2012|access-date=January 22, 2013}} In 2009, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy released an album covering Calloway's music titled How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/how-big-can-you-get-the-music-of-cab-calloway-mw0000809495|title=How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy |website=AllMusic|language=en-us}} In 2012, Calloway's legacy was celebrated in an episode of PBS's American Masters titled "Cab Calloway: Sketches".

File:Calloway house.jpg

In 2019, plans were announced to demolish Calloway's boyhood home at 2216 Druid Hill Avenue in Baltimore, replacing the abandoned structure and the rest of that block with a park to be named Cab Calloway Legends Park in his honor.{{cite news |author=Rao, Sameer |author2=Richman, Talia|title=Allies join call to spare jazz legend Cab Calloway's Baltimore home from the wrecking ball|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=July 6, 2019|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-fe-calloway-house-20190703-story.html|pages=1 and 10|access-date=July 6, 2019}}{{cite news|author=Abell, Jeff|title=Baltimore home of jazz leader Cab Calloway set to be demolished|url=https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/baltimore-home-of-jazz-leader-cab-calloway-set-to-be-demolished|publisher=Fox45 News|date=June 4, 2019|access-date=July 6, 2019}} Family members and the National Trust for Historic Preservation advocated preservation of the house, however, as a significant artifact of African-American cultural heritage. Although the block is designated "historically significant" on the National Register of Historic Places, Baltimore City officials said at a hearing on July 9, 2019, that there is "extensive structural damage" to the Calloway house as well as adjacent ones.{{cite news|author=Rao, Sameer|title=Extensive damage to Calloway's ex-Baltimore home detailed|work=Baltimore Sun|date=July 11, 2019|page=2}} The Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation's executive director, however, said that properties in worse condition than the Calloway House have been restored with financial support from a city tax credit program. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan also urged that demolition of the Calloway House be forestalled for its potential preservation as a historic house museum akin to the Louis Armstrong House in New York. Design options for the planned Cab Calloway Square may include an archway from the facade (pictured) as part of the Square's entrance, as proposed by architects working with Baltimore City and the Druid Heights Community Development Corporation, a Non-Profit community oriented group.{{cite news|author=Rao, Sameer|title=Cab Calloway Square designs unveiled|work=Baltimore Sun|date=July 28, 2019|page=2}} Despite objections, the house was razed on September 5, 2020.{{cite news|last1=Rao|first1=Sameer|last2=Nobles III|first2=Wilborn P.|title=Former Baltimore house of jazz legend Cab Calloway demolished despite activists' push|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=September 5, 2020|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-pol-cab-calloway-house-demolition-20200905-20200905-m7rmxciy35af5gor65myadderu-story.html|access-date=September 5, 2020}}

In 1985, Town Supervisor Anthony F. Veteran issued a proclamation, declaring a Cab Calloway Day in Greenburgh, New York.{{Cite news|last=Klein|first=Alvin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/27/nyregion/theater-greensburgh-honoring-cab-calloway.html|title=Theater; Greensburgh Honoring Cab Calloway|date=January 27, 1985|work=The New York Times|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

In 1990, Calloway was presented with the Beacons in Jazz Award from The New School in New York City. New York City Mayor David Dinkins proclaimed the day "Cab Calloway Day".{{Cite journal|date=May 28, 1990|title=Cab Calloway Saluted In New York Gala During His 'Day'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALADAAAAMBAJ&q=New+School+for+Social+Research+calloway+cosby&pg=PA52|journal=Jet|page=52}}

In 1992, the Cab Calloway School of the Arts was founded in Wilmington, Delaware.{{Cite web |title=History – Cab Calloway School of the Arts |url=https://cabcallowayschool.org/about-us/history/|website=Cabcallowayschool.org |access-date=2023-12-25 |language=en-US}}

In 1994, Calloway's daughter Camay Calloway Murphy founded the Cab Calloway Museum at Coppin State College in Baltimore, Maryland.{{Cite book|last=Pryor-Trusty|first=Rosa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_RL6NFdhmIC&q=She+founded+the+Cab+Calloway+Jazz+Institute+and+Museum&pg=PA402|title=African-American Community, History & Entertainment in Maryland|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4836-1234-8|page=402|publisher=Xlibris Corporation |language=en}}

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) annually honors the jazz legend, a native of Rochester, New York, with a stakes races restricted to New York-bred three-year-olds, as part of their New York Stallion Series. First run in 2003, The Calloway{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/stakes-schedule/nyss-cab-calloway-division/|title=NYSSS Cab Calloway Division|website=Nyra.com|access-date=February 18, 2025}} has since undergone various distance and surface changes. The race is currently run at Saratoga Racecourse, Saratoga Springs, New York. The Cab Calloway Stakes celebrated its 13th renewal on July 24, 2019, and was won by Rinaldi.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In 2020 Calloway was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-24 |title=Inductees (2013–2021) |website=R&B Hall of Fame |url=https://rbhalloffamemarksms.com/inductees/ |access-date=2023-12-25 |language=en-US}}

Calloway received the following accolades:

• 1967: Best Performance, Outer Critics Circle Awards (Hello, Dolly)
• 1987: Inducted into Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame{{Cite web |title=Four Simple Steps to Enjoying Jazz Online |url=http://jazzhall.org/ |access-date=January 22, 2013 |website=jazzhall.org}}
• 1990: Beacons in Jazz Award, The New School
• 1993: National Medal of Arts[http://www.nea.gov/honors/medals/medalists_year.html#93 Lifetime Honors — National Medal of Arts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826194408/http://www.nea.gov/honors/medals/medalists_year.html |date=August 26, 2013 }}
• 1993: Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, University of Rochester{{Cite web |last=Provost |first=Office of the |title=Honorary Degree Recipients - University of Rochester Office of the Provost |url=https://www.rochester.edu/provost/honors-awards/honorary-degrees/ |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Office of the Provost |language=en-US}}
• 1993: Cab Calloway School of the Arts dedicated in his name in Wilmington, Delaware{{Cite journal|date=March 15, 1999|title=Play Based On Caribbean Author Rose Guy's Book Opens At Cab Calloway School Of The Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TTsDAAAAMBAJ&q=Cab+Calloway+School+of+the+Arts+1993&pg=PA35|journal=Jet|pages=35–37}}
• 1995: Inducted into International Jazz Hall of Fame{{Cite web|url=https://www.nevadaappeal.com/entertainment/cab-calloway-orchestra-coming-to-brewery-arts-center-in-carson-city/|title=Cab Calloway Orchestra coming to Brewery Arts Center in Carson City|date=January 2, 2020|website=Nevada Appeal|language=en-US|access-date=February 28, 2020|archive-date=February 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228134026/https://www.nevadaappeal.com/entertainment/cab-calloway-orchestra-coming-to-brewery-arts-center-in-carson-city/ }}
• 1999: Grammy Hall of Fame Award for "Minnie the Moocher"
• 2008: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/1047011/bacharach-band-calloway-get-lifetime-grammys|title=Bacharach, Band, Calloway Get Lifetime Grammys|last=Hasty|first=Katie|date=December 18, 2007|magazine=Billboard}}
• 2019: "Minnie the Moocher" added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry{{cite news |last=Andrews |first=Travis M. |date=March 20, 2019 |title=Jay-Z, a speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and 'Schoolhouse Rock!' among recordings deemed classics by Library of Congress

|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jay-z-a-speech-by-sen-robert-f-kennedy-and-schoolhouse-rock-among-recordings-deemed-classics-by-library-of-congress/2019/03/19/f7eb08ea-4a58-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=March 25, 2019}}

• 1943: Cab Calloway And His Orchestra (Brunswick)
• 1956: Cab Calloway (Epic)
• 1958: Cotton Club Revue 1958 (Gone Records)
• 1959: Hi De Hi De Ho (RCA Victor)
• 1962: Blues Makes Me Happy (Coral)
• 1968: Cab Calloway '68 (Pickwick International)

• 1968: Cab Calloway Sings The Blues (Vocalion)''
• 1974: Hi De Ho Man (Columbia)
• 1981: Minnie The Moocher (RCA International)
• 1983: Mr. Hi. De. Ho. 1930–1931 (MCA)
• 1990: Cab Calloway: Best Of The Big Bands (Columbia)
• 1992: Cab Calloway & Co. (RCA)
• 1992: The King Of Hi-De-Ho 1934–1947 (Giants of Jazz)
• 1998: Jumpin' Jive (Camden)
• 2001: Cab Calloway and His Orchestra Volume 1: The Early Years 1930–1934 (JSP)
• 2003: Cab Calloway & His Orchestra Volume 2: 1935–1940 (JSP)

{{Col-begin}}

{{Col-break}}

Features

• The Big Broadcast (1932) – Himself
• International House (1933) – Himself
• The Singing Kid (1936) – Cotton Club Band Leader
• Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937) – Cotton Club Orchestra Leader (uncredited)
• Stormy Weather (1943) – Himself
• Sensations of 1945 (1944) – Himself
• Ebony Parade (1947) – Himself (archive footage)
• Hi De Ho (1947) – Himself
• Rhythm and Blues Revue (1955)
• Basin Street Revue (1956) – Himself
• St. Louis Blues (1958) – Blade
• Schlager-Raketen (1960) – Sänger / Himself
• The Cincinnati Kid (1965) – Yeller
• The Littlest Angel (1969) – Gabriel{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/261056569/|title=video's 'Littlest Angel'|date=December 13, 1970|work=Honolulu Advertiser|access-date=December 11, 2020}}
• The Blues Brothers (1980) – Curtis

{{Col-break}}

Short subjects

• Minnie the Moocher (1932) – Himself – Bandleader (uncredited)
• Snow-White (1933) – Koko the Clown (voice, uncredited)
• The Old Man of the Mountain (1933) – Cab Calloway & Old Man
• Betty Boop's Rise to Fame (1934) – Old Man (voice, uncredited)
• Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934) – Himself
• Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935) – Himself
• Hi De Ho (1937) – Himself
• Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938)
• Meet the Maestros (1938) – Band Leader, ZaZuZaz number
• Alright by Janet Jackson (1990) – Himself{{col-end}}

{{reflist}}

• Calloway, Cab and Rollins, Bryant (1976). Of Minnie the Moocher and Me. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. {{ISBN|978-0-690-01032-9|}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.cabcallowayschool.org/ Cab Calloway School of the Arts official website]
• [https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/cab-calloway NAMM Oral History Interview (1993)]
• {{IMDb name|0130572}}
• {{Cite archive|collection=CALLOWAY, Cab (CHASE-FATIO Eleanor)|institution=Swiss National Sound Archives|collection-url=https://www.fonoteca.ch/fond/74929.011|type=102 78 rpm records|location=Lugano}}

{{Cab Calloway}}

{{National Medal of Arts recipients 1990s}}{{Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calloway, Cab}}

Category:1907 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:Jazz musicians from Maryland

Category:Singers from Baltimore

Category:Singers from New York City

Category:Jazz musicians from New York City

Category:Musicians from Rochester, New York

Category:People from New Castle County, Delaware

Category:Songwriters from Maryland

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Category:Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni

Category:African-American jazz musicians

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Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery

Category:Converts to Anglicanism from Presbyterianism

Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners

Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

Category:The Cab Calloway Orchestra members

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