Cab Calloway was a vaudevillian singer and band leader. In 1930, his band filled in at the infamous Cotton Club while the Duke Ellington Orchestra was on tour. His odd style was a hit, and soon Calloway's band had top booking. For the next several years, Calloway and his band packed the prohibition-era jazz club with musicians, gangsters, strippers and celebrities. Calloway's songs described the misadventures of a group of junkies. His first hit was Minnie the Moocher:
She was a red hot hoochie coocher.
She was the roughest, toughest frail.
But Minnie had a heart a big as a whale.
She messed around with a bloke named Smokey.
She loved him, though he was cokey.
He took her down to Chinatown.
And he showed her how to kick the gong around.
Minnie the Moocher |
Despite the drug addled lyrics, this song became the basis of a Betty Boop cartoon in 1932. For most of the film, Calloway is portrayed by a strange cartoon ghoul. However there is a brief scene at the beginning in which he appears in person sublimely prancing and dancing before his band. This is the first known footage of Cab Calloway.