Print of Cab Calloway and dancers performing: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A black and white photograph of Cab Calloway performing with dancers around him. Calloway is pictured in the center of the image, pictured from the waist up at an angle from the bottom left corner. He wears a checked tuxedo with tail coat and white bowtie. His mouth is open as if singing and he is glancing down past his proper right shoulder. In the foreground, the hands, neck, chin, and torso of a dancer in a partial backbend is visible. Behind her, in the background, another dancer is visible, but out of focus. She wears a striped costume with white bodice and stands with one arm raised above her head, bending back slightly from the waist. Behind Calloway, only the legs of another dancer are visible. She is atop an elevated platform, behind and facing away from Calloway, standing upon her proper left foot with her proper right bent at the knee and her dark colored high heeled shoe visible in the center of the image. There are no marks or inscriptions, front or back.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1930s
• Photograph by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Cab Calloway, American, 1907 - 1994
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W (Image): 9 7/16 × 7 7/16 in. (24 × 18.9 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (Sheet): 10 1/8 × 8 in. (25.7 × 20.3 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Composers (Musicians)
• Topic: Conductors (Musicians)
• Topic: Dance
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2013.237.16
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Cabella Calloway Langsam
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.