Talk: Northern Calloway

Super Vroomer?

Anyone know what this is about in New York Magazine? That Calloway conceived "Super Vroomer" and "I Been There". -- Zanimum 17:36, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not Muppet/Sesame relevant, but it involves characters he claimed to have "conceived" and wound up suing someone over, but which don't seem to have made any kind of impact anyway. It crops up in a couple of the sadder articles about Calloway's personal life, which see below, we decided to mostly shy away from outside of essential facts. Apparently or supposedly one "Super Vroomer" book was published circa 1978, with a "conceived" credit, so this may have been post lawsuit. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:40, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Did He have a ancestor?

Hey, Dan.

Did Northern Calloway had a grandad or great grandfather named Cab?

Sezme 14:16, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I can't find any connection. One source implied that Cab Calloway had only daughters, which would mean his grandsons would not likely carry the name "Calloway". I can't find any information on Northern's parents. My guess would be that if they are related at all, then Cab was, at best, Northern's uncle or great uncle. Cab appeared on Sesame Street in 1980, which was during Northern's tenure; if they were closely related, it'd be at least midly surprising if they didn't do at least one scene together.

Oh, and Cab was born in 1907 and Northern in 1948, so it'd be father or grandfather, not great-grandfather. =) Powers 16:07, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

CBS Special "The Funnies"

The article states: "In television, Calloway appeared in the CBS special The Funnies, playing Lt. Flap from the Beetle Bailey comic strip." IMDb doesn't have an entry for "The Funnies", and Calloway's filmography includes only Sesame-related productions (except for one film, Together For Days). Obviously, IMDb doesn't have records for every one-shot special ever aired on TV, but it's still unusual. Where did this information come from? LtPowers 13:32, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I checked, I'd got the name wrong, it was "The Funny Papers." You still won't find anything online for it. Cartoonist Profiles did a spread on the special, with details and photos of sets and make-up and scenes from the sketches, including a beardeed Calloway as Flap (this was 1972, so his second year on Sesame Street; apart from headliners Raquel Welch and Caroll O'Connor, the special used New York talent, including Captain Kangaroo alumnus Jane Connell as Mary Worth). Andrew Leal (talk) 15:39, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Death

I know Northern had a lot of problems with drugs, mainly cocaine, but I wasn't sure if that had anything to do with how he died. Does anybody have any info on that? Scooter 01:32, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, it seems we'd sort of decided not to go into too many details about people's deaths. And in this case, anything would really be guesswork or gossip, since the official obits all stated that the cause of death was as yet "undetermined," though he had lost consciousness shortly after arrival at a psychiatric facility. I could post details, but again, I don't think it's either truly relevant or tasteful to include here, anymore than details about Richard Hunt's illness. --Andrew, Aleal 01:36, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, okay, that makes sense.Scooter 01:48, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

While it was said in the article that Northern Calloway left Sesame Street because of health reasons, it was stated somehwere at the Muppet Central message board that Northern left the show because he was acting in Pippin' on broadway. --Minor muppetz 02:44, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm going by newspaper articles, which are generally more accurate than Muppet Central. The official press statement by CTW was that he'd quit the show for medical reasons, which jibes with the odd circumstances of his death. And if he left for a show, it couldn't have been Pippin as he'd been part of that show's cast back in the 1970s, and it was too soon for a revival. Believe me, I do my homework when I write an article (or try to, anyway; at least with Wikis, false info or typos can be fixed, whereas with print books, you try to figure out which mistakes were yours or the copy editors, or send in corrections for the next edition). I'll probably add in a full newspaper bibliography later, if necessary or useful, but as it was a lot of bits and pieces, it seemed easier this way. --Andrew, Aleal 02:48, 5 March 2006 (UTC)"'

I've read posts on Muppet Central (that cited newspaper articles) about all kinds of problems Calloway had before he left the show... but I don't think it's necessary to talk about all that stuff here. "He left the show for health reasons" would suffice, if it's from an official CTW statement. -Ryan PrawnRR 03:44, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I pasted in a recap of the unnamed spokesperson's statement to the Boston Globe. If there were any other reasons behind the decision, or any implications behind the vague statement, this isn't the place to speculate about them. I hope that settles this. --Andrew, Aleal 04:00, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Maybe reference or quote Davis' "Street Gang," which has a lot more info on this -- that way people can find it but we're not going into too many details? Max riverbottom