Fans knew Cab Calloway as the scat-singing hep cat, the hi-de-hi-de-hi'ing bandleader whose career spanned six decades and ranged from Harlem to Hollywood.
Josh Langsam knew him as the grandfather whose smile could stretch a mile wide."He was always cheerful and he was a great family person," Calloway's 13-year-old grandson said Saturday.
Calloway, who suffered a severe stroke on June 12 at his home in White Plains, N.Y., died Friday in Cokesbury Village, a retirement community, with his family at his side. He was 86.
Josh loved the forays they'd make to the race track.
"We used to sit in the clubhouse together and bet on the horses. I used to win more than he would and he just didn't want to admit it," the youngster said.
Josh's mother, Cabella Langsam, is Calloway's youngest daughter. Calloway's wife, Nuffie, was resting Saturday at Cokesbury, where she lives.
She spent a quiet hour alone with her husband after he died: "I put my head on his shoulder, and that was very healing," she said.
"He had two separate lives: His life on stage and his life with the family. When he closed the door on his dressing room, he came home as a husband, father and grandfather."
As a bandleader, singer, author, dancer and songwriter, Calloway performed for more than 60 years, from Chicago jazz joints to the Cotton Club, on Broadway and in Hollywood movies. His influence in the music world was huge.
Calloway was the man who hired the then-unknown Dizzy Gillespie and promoted the careers of Pearl Bailey and Lena Horne. He became known to a younger generation through the 1980 hit film "The Blues Brothers."'
Even in old age, he was a marvel to watch - a dervish who dashed from one end of the stage to the other, his limbs and his mop of unruly hair flying in all directions as he flashed an enormous smile.
His trademark song was "Minnie the Moocher," and audiences would respond in kind when he sang the chorus of "hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho." He once said his scat refrains were the product of a faulty memory - he couldn't recall the words.
"I love being called a living legend. Sure, I love that," Calloway said in 1985.