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