Cab Calloway.

Born Cabell Calloway III on December 25, 1907, in Rochester, New York, Calloway spent his youth in Baltimore, where he attended Frederick Douglass High School. He briefly studied at Lincoln University before leaving for Chicago, where he enrolled at Crane College to study law. But music pulled him away: he began singing with a local band called The Alabamians and took over as its leader in 1928.

Cab Calloway headlined the Cotton Club in Harlem in the 1930s. His energetic performances and scat singing made him a star. His 1931 recording of Minnie the Moocher became the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and his call-and-response phrase Hi-De-Ho became a catchphrase. He led his own orchestra, playing at hotels and nightclubs nationwide, and made numerous records. In the 1940s and 1950s, he acted in films such as Stormy Weather 1943 and toured with the Broadway production of Porgy and Bess 1952–1954. Later, he played the janitor Curtis in The Blues Brothers 1980, introducing his music to a new generation.

As a prolific songwriter, Calloway collaborated with composers Jack Palmer and Andy Gibson, creating standards like The Jumpin’ Jive and Boog It. He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1987 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Calloway was married twice: first to Wenonah Conacher, and later to Zulme MacNeal. He had three children: Camay Calloway Murphy, singer Chris Calloway, and actress Ja’Net DuBois. Chris Calloway performed with her father in the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 1967. He was also the father-in-law of actor Rupert Crosse.

The Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington, Delaware, opened in 1992 bearing his name. His song Minnie the Moocher and his flamboyant style inspired Tim Burton’s character Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993. Three of his films — Snow-White 1933, Stormy Weather 1943, and The Blues Brothers 1980 — are preserved in the National Film Registry. Calloway was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1987 and awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993. He pioneered scat singing and bridged jazz and popular culture as a showman.