​Watch Cab Calloway Actually Perform “Mr. Hepster’s Dictionary,” His Famous Dictionary of Jazz Slang (1944)

"Who’s up for a good dictionary on film? Colin Browning, assistant editor of The Bluff, a Loyola Marymount University student newspaper, has some kopasetic casting suggestions for a hypothetical feature adaptation of the ‘Merriam-Webster classic.’ He’s just muggin’, of course. Still, he seems like a young man who’s got his boots on. Dig?…no? In that case, you’d best acquaint yourself with the only cinematic dictionary adaptation we’re aware of, the Mr. Hepcat’s Dictionary number from Sensations of 1945, above. Musical team Al Sherman & Harry Tobias drew directly from Cab Calloway’s Cat-ologue: a Hepster’s Dictionary, a lexicon of Harlem jazz musicians’ slang originally published in 1938’ when choosing terms for Calloway to define for a young protégée, eager to be schooled in ‘the lingo all the jitterbugs use today.’ In between, Calloway, lays some iron in white tie and tails. ...”

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