# Where Did 'Scatman' Crothers Get His Nickname? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401 "2003-07-14T15:56:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/1 "2003-07-14T15:56:31Z")
How did Mr. Crothers come to be know as ‘Scatman’? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/2 "2003-07-14T16:15:30Z")
I assume he did some “scat” singing in his day. Ella Fitzgerald is a “scat” singer with whom you may be familiar. Louis Armstrong also was a “scatman.” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/3 "2003-07-14T16:15:53Z")
Before he was an actor, he was a musician, much like Marky Mark Wahlberg. He used to play drums and sing “scat”. He first thought of the nickname while auditioning for a radio program in Dayton, Ohio in 1932; the director thought he needed a snazzier name than “Benjamin”. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/4 "2003-07-14T16:19:53Z")
Forgot to link to the source-his [obituary](http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hollow/9138/ObitsSC.html). ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/5 "2003-07-14T16:20:25Z")
To elaborate on these answers, “scat” (as in the music, not as in a term for excrement) is a form of singing that is mostly nonsense syllables sung at different pitches and often in rapid succession. Think of it as sounding like trying to imitate a musical instrument with your voice, singing sounds like “dwee-ba, yow, dit dit dit, doo-dah.” ---
**Author:** ![Frank\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Frank\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank_2)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/6 "2003-07-14T16:29:41Z")
Another scat singer was the great [Cab Calloway](http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/calloway.html), songwriter of _Minnie the Moocher_. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/7 "2003-07-14T16:30:05Z")
He almost gets close to his old scat roots in an episode of “Love Boat,” where he plays Virgil “Scattergun” Gibson. That segment was actually a pretty good one, dealing with the old “Negro Baseball Leagues.” ---
**Author:** ![braintree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@braintree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/braintree)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/8 "2003-07-14T16:39:39Z")
If you’ve ever seen the Betty Boop version of Snow White (1933) that’s Cab doing an extremely fine rendition of “St. James Infirmery Blues.” ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-scatman-crothers-get-his-nickname/188401/9 "2003-07-14T17:54:24Z")
Scatman Crothers serves up a little bit of his scatting talent in the introduction to Ralf Bakshi’s _Coonskin_, now better known in video stores as [Street Fight](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0071361). (A crazy voice lineup is to be found in that film, by the way. In addition to Crothers’ veteran animation voice-overs, he is joined by Miami Vice’s Phillip Michael Thomas, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Gordone, and the unmistakeable Barry White.)