Happy Birthday to Cab Calloway (December 25, 1907–November 18, 1994)

On Christmas Day 100 years ago, music legend, jazz singer, and band leader Cab Calloway was born.

 Some of my favorite Cab Calloway related clips.

 
Fleischer Brothers' 1932 cartoon "Minnie the Moocher"

 

 
Fleischer Brothers' 1933 cartoon Betty Boop and the Old Man of the Mountain
Disney usually gets all the credit but the Fleischer brothers were very innovative during their time.  One technology they pioneered was "rotoscoping" were they would film an actor and then animate over the film to give the animated character a more natural human movement.  You can really see it here as the first half the old mans movements seem to be done in the traditional way by the animator...the second half you can really see that the body movement is almost exactly in synch with how Cab Calloway would move.  They used the same technology in the Minnie the Moocher animation above with the Walrus Ghost dancing around.

 

 
The Blues Brothers Movie (1980) "Minnie the Moocher" I love the part in the middle where he scats and the audience tries to repeat.

 

  
Squeezit the Moocher
From one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen....a young Danny Elfman performing a very bizarre version of Minnie the Moocher from the movie The Forbidden Zone.  Warning...contains some nudity.

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