Editing Cab Calloway (section)

=== 1930–1955: Success ===
In 1930, [[The Missourians (band)|the Missourians]] became known as [[The Cab Calloway Orchestra|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.<ref name="Brooks" /> During the depths of the [[Great Depression]], Calloway was earning $50,000 a year at 23 years old.<ref name=":7" />[[File:Cab Calloway as Bandleader (Van Vechten portrait -2).jpg|thumb|left|Calloway by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 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.<ref name="Brooks" /> 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 (Betty Boop cartoon)|Minnie the Moocher]]'' (1932), ''[[Snow-White (1933 film)|Snow-White]]'' (1933), and ''[[The Old Man of the Mountain (film)|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

[[File:Iiif-public music musgottlieb-00951-002 0001-0x46x869x978-408x-0-default.jpg|thumb|Calloway by William Gottlieb, 1947]]
As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher", Calloway became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man".<ref name="nyt_obit">{{cite news|author=Wilson, John S.|title=Cab Calloway&nbsp;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}}</ref> He performed in the 1930s in a series of short films for [[Paramount Pictures|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 (dance)|moonwalk]]. Calloway said 50 years later, "it was called The Buzz back then."<ref name="DiLorenzo1985">{{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&nbsp;... We did that back in the 1930s! Only it was called The Buzz back then.}}</ref> The 1933 film ''[[International House (1933 film)|International House]]'' featured Calloway performing his classic song, "Reefer Man", a tune about a man who smokes [[marijuana]].<ref name="works">{{cite web |url=http://www.heptune.com/calloway.html |title=Works of Cab Calloway, Jazz Artist |access-date=January 22, 2013}}</ref> [[Fredi Washington]] was cast as Calloway's love interest in ''[[Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho]]'' (1934).<ref>{{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}}</ref> [[Lena Horne]] made her film debut as a dancer in ''[[Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party]]'' (1935).<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>Shipton, Alyn. ''Hi-de-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway'', Oxford University Press (2010), p. 97.</ref> According to film critic [[Arthur Knight (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".<ref name="Knight">Knight, Arthur. ''Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film'', Duke University Press (2002), pp. 72–76.</ref><ref>[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.</ref>{{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 [[Glossary of jive talk|jive language]] reference book of the [[New York Public Library]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{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}}</ref>

Calloway's band in the 1930s and 1940s included many notable musicians, such as [[Ben Webster]], [[Illinois Jacquet]], [[Milt Hinton]], [[Danny Barker]], [[Doc Cheatham]], [[Edwin Swayze|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."<ref name=":7" /> Calloway and his band formed baseball and basketball teams.<ref>[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</ref><ref>[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.</ref> They played each other while on the road, play against local semi-pro teams, and play charity games.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref name="groovin">{{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 }}</ref>

From 1941 to 1942, Calloway hosted a weekly radio quiz show called ''The Cab Calloway Quizzicale''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Calling himself "Doctor" Calloway, it was a parody of ''The College of Musical Knowledge'', a radio contest created by bandleader [[Kay Kyser]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> During the years of [[World War II]], Calloway entertained troops in United States before they departed overseas.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The Calloway Orchestra also recorded songs full of social commentary including "Doing the Reactionary," "The [[Führer]]'s Got the Jitters,"<ref>{{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}}</ref> "The Great Lie," "We'll Gather Lilacs," and "My Lament for V Day."<ref>{{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}}</ref>

In 1943, Calloway appeared in the film ''[[Stormy Weather (1943 film)|Stormy Weather]]'', one of the first mainstream Hollywood films with a black cast.<ref>{{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 &#124; American Masters |publisher=PBS |date=February 21, 2012 |access-date=January 22, 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Ossman" />[[File:Cabsuit.jpg|thumb|right|One of Cab Calloway's [[zoot suits]] on display in Baltimore's City Hall, October 2007]]