MUSIC HISTORY: Cab Calloway and Betty Boop

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer.

The Cotton Club was the premier jazz venue in the country. In 1931 Calloway and his orchestra were hired as a replacement for the Duke Ellington Orchestra while it was touring. Calloway quickly proved so popular that his band became the "co-house" band with Ellington's, and his group began touring nationwide when not playing the Cotton Club. Their popularity was greatly enhanced by the twice-weekly live national radio broadcasts on NBC from the Cotton Club. Calloway also appeared on Walter Winchell's radio program and with Bing Crosby in his show at New York's Paramount Theatre. As a result of these appearances, Calloway, together with Ellington, broke the major broadcast network colour barrier.

Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in comic strips and mass merchandising.

A caricature of a Jazz Age flapper, Betty Boop was described in a 1934 court case as: "combin[ing] in appearance the childish with the sophisticated—a large round baby face with big eyes and a nose like a button, framed in a somewhat careful coiffure, with a very small body of which perhaps the leading characteristic is the most self-confident little bust imaginable". Despite having been toned down in the mid-1930s as a result of the Hays Code to appear more demure, she became one of the best-known and popular cartoon characters in the world.

Question: So, how did a hepcat like Cab Calloway meet a cartoon character like Betty Boop?

Answer: In 1931 Calloway recorded his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher". That song, along with "St. James Infirmary Blues" and "The Old Man of the Mountain", were performed for the Betty Boop animated shorts: Minnie the Moocher (1932), Snow White (1933), and The Old Man of the Mountain (1933).

Through rotoscoping, Calloway performed the voice-over for these cartoons, but his dance steps were the basis of the characters' movements. He took advantage of this, timing his concerts in some communities to coincide with the release of the films in order to make the most of the publicity.

As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher", Calloway became identified with its chorus, giving him the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man". He also 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."

This week, let's take a look at these cartoons and listen to Cab Calloway's fabulous music.

Minnie the Moocher: