I think Max Fleischer was appreciative of black musicians and music, as he also featured Louis Armstrong and even Popeye was a pretty decent scat singer.
So long as there might be people reading this, I think it’s worth emphasizing that a name by itself—whether a real person’s name, a character’s name, or the name/title of a work of expression such as a film, song, book, or photograph—is not protected by copyright law.
Names and titles cannot be copyrighted. Characters can be, though not every character qualifies for copyright protection. The character has to be sufficiently fleshed out, so stock characters (like the Drunk Redneck or the Bad Boy) don’t qualify.
Unless the name is trademarked, you can use it as a character name (even if it is trademarked, you’re likely ok using it). But you can’t use the character, not even if you change the name.
You can have your own character who merely shares the name (see the two Harry Potters in the first Troll movie).
In short (and assuming you’re still around to read this), your Jazzbo can like jazz, your Minnie the Moocher can be a moocher, and your Freddie the Freeloader can be a freeloader (I mean, hell, it’s right there in the names), but keep other similarities to a minimum, lest you infringe on the copyright of the original characters. Though it’s entirely possible that the copyright has long since lapsed on any or all of them, since you used to have to renew your registration every so often and many people didn’t bother.
As always, but especially since you’re using the names of three known, somewhat related characters, run your final draft past a qualified attorney.
Now ya’ll, that’s one well-wrapped toothbrush.
Cab Calloway was very popular with white audiences, heading one of the house bands (the other being Duke Ellington’s) at the Cotton Club in Harlem, which black performers but the audience was restricted to whites. Calloway also had an NBC radio program and appeared in regular movies.
…and the audiences in Hi-Di-Ho were all black. And at the climactic scene where Cab shoots the (black) mob boss, two (black) cops rush in and say nothing but “Good riddance to bad rubbish” (that’s verbatim) and send him off to the nightclub to do his show (the finale of which has a preacher come on stage and perform a wedding). The whole film is available on YouTube; you can check it out for yourself, if you dare.
You’re taking your orders from Minnie the Moocher, now?
Times have certainly changed since I was a moderator around here.
I never said they weren’t. My point was that Calloway didn’t just appear in “race” films like that one. (Checking IMDB, it looks like he only made a couple at most.) As I said, he was quite popular with white audiences and appeared in other movies with mostly white casts (usually as a bandleader, to be sure).
Doesn’t sound any more implausible than the plots of a lot of B-movies from the 1930s and 1940s.
It was Jazzbo, if you must know.
Nah, I don’t really care.
Cab Calloway also appeared in International House, a 1933 pre-code comedy film, in a non-race role. His band plays “Reefer Man.”
The film also includes the great line from W.C. Fields, upon landing his autogyro in Wuhu, China…”Is this Kansas City MISSURAH, or Kansas City KANSAS?”
Also the great (pre-code) scene where Fields and Peggy Hopkins Joyce get into a car and Joyce says “Agghhh!..what am I SITTING on?” and Fields pulls a cat out from under her and says “Pussy.”
I watched the Blues Brothers DVD with some people who had never heard of Cab Calloway. They loved the Aretha song, but just flipped out when Minnie the Moocher came on. Absolutely entranced. It’s a good song to introduce people to early 1900’s music.
If you can notice the musicians behind Calloway, you can tell that they are absolutely thrilled to be playing for him.