DANCER

    Blanche Dorothea Calloway was Born in Baltimore, moved to Rochester, NY when she was four, and then back to Baltimore when she was six. Blanche was sister to her younger brother Cab Calloway. Florence Mills and Gertrude Saunders were the inspiration for Blanche to go into show business. Her first big "break" came in 1923, when she joined the touring companies of the Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake musical "Shuffle Along."

    Later Bill Bailey and Blanche Calloway, separately and together were Dance Partners at many nightclubs in New York and Chicago before her singing career took off.

She was a very talented singer and performer of the Blues style of music.

    One of her first music sessions was with Louis Armstrong on trumpet and Blanche on vocals. She formed her own all male group calling themselves 'Blanche Calloway and her Joy Boys' (1925-1935) later to be renamed 'Blanche Calloway and Her Orchestra'. It is said to have started her brother 'Cab Calloway' in the business and because of her dancing was much more wild than he on Stage.