Can’t find the clip but I think it was in a PBS doc about Cab Calloway, where John Landis was talking about working with him on “Blues Brothers.” Landis said that though the crowd of young extras in the auditorium had no idea who Calloway was, by the time he was done he’d really gotten them going with “Minnie.”
Also, Gershwin wrote the role of Sportin’ Life in “Porgy and Bess” with Calloway in mind to perform it:
(It’s cracking me up that he’s singing this in front of a family audience, from the look of it. Yeah, slight disconnect there.)
