Cab Calloway

EUBIE BLAKE, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb. They and countless other Baltimore jazz greats will be honored at the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center, which dedicates its new home on Howard St. this weekend. Friday's grand opening and Sunday's family day highlight the new possibilities of the Eubie Blake center, which has been leading a vagabond existence ever since a fire in 1993 forced it out of its previous home. With 21,000 square feet in a building that once was part of the Maryland General Hospital, the Eubie Blake center will finally have room to thrive and grow.

CHILDREN ARE often unaware how good or how bad they have it. Kings Contrivance resident Cecelia Calloway didn't know how rich her life was when she was a child. Daughter of bandleader and scat singer Cab Calloway, Cecelia Calloway led a life not just rich in possessions, but rich in history and tradition. "For the longest time, I didn't even realize what my dad did," Cecelia Calloway said. What she did know was that her father often was not home. He was on the road performing but he always returned at Christmastime.

IT WAS JUST before 9 last Wednesday morning when the duck appeared in the outer offices of Douglass High School."Quack, quack to you," quoth the duck just before all 5 foot 6 inches of it strode through a pair of swinging doors and then out another door that led to the hallway. Within seconds the duck was at the front door, greeting the steady parade of Douglass students as they hurried in for classes."Welcome! Hurry up! Put some pep in your step!" the duck chided. "This means getting to school every day on time."

Two professional educators -- a former school principal and a Johns Hopkins University researcher -- will be appointed today to the Baltimore school board to replace members who have left before their terms expired, the governor's office confirmed.The office of Gov. Parris N. Glendening also confirmed yesterday that a third board member, Dorothy Siegel, was reappointed.Camay Calloway Murphy, a cultural development consultant at Coppin State College and former principal, will fill out the remaining two-year term of Bonnie S. Copeland, who moved out of the city last fall.

NEARLY every Baltimorean has heard of such hometown favorites as Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday, but scarcely remembered today are the many classically trained African-American musicians who flourished from the post-Civil War years to the 1960s.During much of this century, Baltimore's black community was a hotbed of musical talent, producing many versatile musicians who performed jazz in clubs and social halls on Saturday nights, gospel in churches on Sunday mornings and classical or big band music at a variety of venues on Sunday afternoons.

More than 900 guests attended the Baltimore premiere of Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated documentary "4 Little Girls" recently at Coppin State College. The premiere was sponsored by HBO, co-producer of the film with Spike Lee, and TCI Communications Inc. of Baltimore.The complimentary tickets to the screening were distributed throughout the community as part of a partnership among the two companies, Coppin State and Bethel A.M.E. Church.Coles B. Ruff Jr., president and GM of TCI Baltimore, said he was "encouraged by HBO's efforts over the years, . . . especially those geared toward diversity of cable viewers."

Harriet Browne, 65, a tap dancer who toured with Cab Calloway in the 1950s and later danced with the Silverbelles, died Monday in New York after a long illness.Kaaren Erickson, 44, a soprano who sang at the Metropolitan Opera, died Saturday in Maryville, Tenn., after a two-year battle with cancer.James Wear Walker, 90, the uncle of President George Bush and son of the founder of golf's Walker Cup, died Saturday in Hobe Sound, Fla. An avid golfer, he was the son of George Herbert Walker, the founder of the Walker Cup competition, an international tournament for amateur golfers.

THE YEAR OF our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Fifty Seven. Cold War. Atomic jitters. Man has become Death, the destroyer of worlds and the squares are sipping champagne music from Lawrence Welk's accordion.Across the land, pulpits fulminate with warnings about communism, Armageddon and race music. The Beat Generation on the road with Jack Kerouac, exploring the Coney Island in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's mind and/or digging blue notes in smoke-filled clubs in New York and Frisco.It was the year that Norman Mailer wrote "The White Negro," an essay about black hipsters and their white imitators.

BALTIMORE HAS long had a reputation as a good jazz town. Such legends as Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway and Chick Webb hailed from here. The contemporary Baltimore talent ranges from songstress Ethel Ennis and keyboardist Cyrus Chestnut to veteran pianist Ellis Larkins. And yet, a debate rages about whether Baltimore still is a good jazz town and whether America still appreciates this unique music form.That's why it is good to hear Ken Burns is turning his attention to jazz. The film maker, who dramatically chronicled the Civil War and baseball, will have his new public television series, "The West," aired next month.

A FEW WEEKS BACK the movie ''Primal Fear'' was the big hit across America. The lead was played by superstar Richard Gere, but many thought that the real star was the young supporting actor, Baltimore (or Columbia) born and bred Edward Norton -- who played ''Roy'' masterfully. So masterfully that stardom is assured the gifted Mr. Norton, who joins other Baltimoreans who made it out of Baltimore to Hollywood and New York.We start our list in the 1920s. Some of you might not connect until later on.Francis X. Bushman, raised on Argyle Avenue near Mosher Street, is remembered as America's first movie ''star,'' ''first matinee idol'' and first millionaire actor.