Cab Calloway - Minnie The Moocher

This is the official video for jazz singer/bandleader Cab Calloway's historical Minnie The Moocher. Calloway and his amusing song were memorably featured in Betty Boop's Minnie The Moocher short released in 1932. The introduction in the Fleischer Studios produced cartoon features Calloway in live-action for 30 seconds - it is the earliest known footage of the performer. Calloway is known for popularizing call-and-response singing, as is seen here. This song, with it's drug-laced lyrics, was heavily based on Ernest Rodger's 1927 rendition of Willie The Weeper - a very early 1900's song about drug addiction.