"the roughest, toughest frail"

 

Cab Calloway performing in The Blues Brothers  1980 film

        The song "Minnie The Moocher" used to be sung by an entertainer named Cab Calloway.  He lived from 1907 to 1994.

At Boston University, in Mugar Library, there was a glass case with photographs of Cab Calloway, and a history of his career and accomplishments that you could read, through the glass.

        Mr. Calloway must have left his papers to B.U.

        That was the first I had ever learned of Cab Calloway, although I had heard the song "Minnie..." on That Girl reruns I watched in summers, in fifth and 6th grade.

Mr. Calloway performed "Minnie The Moocher" in the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers.  That movie came out while I was in Boston going to school:  I still have not seen it.  Some time, I will.

        In the 1980s when I was working in country music radio, one of our part-timers told me, "Oh, you have to see that movie!

       On You Tube, there's a video showing Cab Calloway's Blues Brothers performance.  In the Comments under it, one person wrote, "He's an old man, but he got swag."

Another one said, "Man I just love how this music makes you think of big city, small alleys, large puffs of smoke and shared drinks."

(?)

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