Cab Calloway - real George!        

Glide in his stride, outlandish hepster suits, motor-mouthed scat hyperventilations -- pencil-mustachioed Swing-Jazz ringleader Cab simply was stylin' personified, for 1930s Cotton Club/Savoy/Apollo patrons. And everlastingly, too, in the delirious consciousness of those hip to the tip.

Only persons ignorant (somehow) of Cab Calloway's larger-than-life persona and imprint on popular culture could dismiss him. 

Successive decades saw performers modeling divergent glad rags, in manners unlike predecessors. But even in those, trace elements of the Hi Di Ho bandleader's hotshot airs hovered.

Cab was the first black musician to sell a million records. Among Calloway-penned-or-interpreted classics that reside in the Great American Songbook are "Minnie the Moocher," "Are You Hep to the Jive," and "St. James Infirmary." Also in that rank are "We the Cats Shall Hep You," "The Old Man of the Mountain," "Are You All Reet?," and "What's Buzzin', Cousin?"

Adoring audiences at 'black and tan' spots went wild over the golden-tongued jester with tails and tousled hair a-fling. And of course, every man in his Swing orchestra spoke jive like a treasured second tongue. (At times, Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were among those making walls come tumbling down.)

Nor was Cab's contribution to our world solely musical. Of cultural significance was his ingress into white entertainment, a reality that advanced necessary racial unity. Just as the scat-master and associated players purveyed hot-and-cold ankle-benders to Savoy and Apollo throngs, so, too, did they loom impressively in more general milieus. 

Cab turned up in films Stormy Weather, Porgy and Bess, International House, The Singing Kid (which also featured Al Jolson), The Cincinatti Kid, and Hello Dolly. 

Lena Horne made her film debut in 1935 short Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party. It was one of several the slick impresario lensed.

Not only did he appear on radio programs with Bing Crosby and Walter Winchell, but Cab went on to host his own -- the first black man to do so. 

He assumed Billboard chart status some half-dozen times through the years, also having injected reet magic in three Betty Boop cartoons: Minnie the Moocher, Snow White, and The Old Man of the Mountain. His impeccable musicality gilded the animated flickers.

Decades later, he illustrated his enduring coolness in 1980's Blues Brothers movie. The dashing Hi Di Ho cat with the whirling feet, laughing eyes, and crackerjack motor-mouthisms remained as George as when the '30s stepped out.

So, when subjects of heptitude are broached, the wise evoke Cab Calloway. And anyone who doesn't know should shut their yaps and pay attention.