Elmer Calloway
Elmer Calloway (1911-1979)
The name “Calloway” was a huge success. Before Cab, of course, there had been Blanche, the elder sister (born in 1903) who had made her debut with Louis Armstrong before having her own orchestra in 1931. But what few of us know, Is that Cab also had a little brother who also had his orchestra. But to find out more about Elmer Calloway, you have to search and search again. And especially not Cab … Elmer Calloway did not play any instrument, but an “investor” had the idea to take advantage of the fashionable name. Also, as early as 1931, was erected an orchestra in his name in Washington, DC. According to Fred NORMAN (1910-1993), trombone and arranger, it was a good orchestra, mixing musicians even Washington and Baltimore . None of them was known. The orchestra played two seasons at a club in Washington’s Black Quarter, the Prudhomme Club , at the intersection of 11th Avenue and the famous U Street. Everything was made to suggest that it was the Cotton Club of the capital.
The orchestra enjoyed some local fame – even having the Bernie’s Banjo Alabamians as substitutes at the Club Prudhom when they were playing private parties – having their radio show on Mondays and Thursdays on WOL station in December 1931 .
Calloway was invited to play in New York in a battle of the big bands Savoy Club . On the way, the bus that carried everyone stopped, and while the musicians and their leader stretched their legs, Elmer was knocked down by a car. Elmer was taken to the hospital and was forced to give up.
The whole band went to New York. Luckily for him, the Savoy Club was a stone’s throw away from the Cotton Club …
You can imagine the following: Cab replaced his little brother Elmer at the foot of the stage, accompanied by his bassist (probably Al Morgan). They won the battle and left for Washington.
Soon after, the orchestra was dissolved.
Elmer left the music scene and enrolled at Cheyney State College in Pennsylvania (the joke had circulated in the press that Cab would pay school fees to his younger brother if he decided to go home!). A graduate, he left for Atlanta where he became professor in a technical high school where he took his direction.
Elmer died suddenly at age 67 in Atlanta, Georgia, in April 1979.
When he died he left behind his wife Alma and his daughter Carol Baugh.
What is certain is that given his almost absence in the autobiography of Cab, one can easily imagine that the big brother had little esteem for the scenic attempt of his little brother.