Cab Calloway

He fathered a child with Zelma Proctor in 1927. He married Betty Conacher in 1928 but they remained childless.

He met Zulme MacNeal and fathered three children with her in 1945, 1949, and 1952. The children were Chris, Lael, and Cabella respectively.

He suffered a severe stroke and died on November 18, 1994 in Hockessin, Delaware.

He was born on December 25, 1907 to Martha Reed and Cabell Calloway, Jr. in Rochester, New York. His family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where his mother worked as a teacher and his father as a lawyer.

In 1922, his parents arranged for him private voice lessons. Although his parents and his voice teacher discouraged him from listening to and singing jazz, he began to frequent speakeasies and jazz clubs in 1924.

In 1925, he played drums and sang with a jazz combo at several clubs in Baltimore. He also performed in several revues and musicals at his high school and local theater.

He excelled at sports in his high school, and played basketball with the Negro Professional Basketball League on the “Baltimore Athenians” in 1926.

His elder sister, Blanche Calloway, lived in Chicago and was enjoying great success as a singer and bandleader. She helped her little brother land his first job as a performer after he graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1927. He often credited her for inspiring him to start a career in show business.

He graduated from high school in 1927 and joined his sister in a summer tour of “Plantation Days” in Chicago.

He landed his first nightclub gig in 1928, playing the drums and singing at the “Dreamland Café.” It propelled him to the next steady gig at the “Sunset Café”, where he performed with Louie Armstrong and Carroll Dickerson.

In 1929, when Armstrong and Dickerson left for New York City, he took over as bandleader of the “The Alabamians.” He quit the law course he was taking at Crane College to pursue his music career. He toured with his band and ended the tour at the “Savoy Ballroom” in Harlem. He was so popular with the crowds, that he accepted an offer to become bandleader for “The Missourians."

In 1930, he agreed to be the house band at the “Cotton Club” while Duke Ellington was on tour. His success led him to remain and lead a co-house band. NBC taped a twice weekly radio show at the Cotton Club and it propelled him to further fame. He and Ellington had effectively broken through the unspoken color barrier of broadcasts.

In 1931, he wrote and recorded his most famous song, “Minnie the Moocher.” This recording more than any other would prove to typify his fame, and he later came to be known as “The Hi De Ho Man.”

During his long career, he produced a huge discography. Among the more notable works are 1931’s “Minnie the Moocher,” 1934’s “Moon Glow,” 1939’s “The Jumpin’ Jive,” and 1941’s “Blues in the Night.” These hits established the style of scat and jazz in a way that reverberated throughout the era.

His more notable movie credits include “The Big Broadcast” in 1932, “The Singing Kid” in 1936, and “Stormy Weather in 1943. His appearances served to further break down discrimination toward black actors.

His “The New Cab Calloway Hepsters Dictionary: The Language of Jive” legitimized the language that surrounded the jazz culture of the time.