Print of Cab Calloway with his band and dancers from the movie The Singing Kid

Cab Calloway began conducting the Cotton Club band around 1930 until the club closed in 1940. This important photograph depicts him with his band and dancers, whose appearance went against the club's colorist policies. While non-white audiences were prohibited from the club before 1935, all of the club's performers were Black. Female dancers were usually light-skinned, young, and slim. Calloway was a prominent entertainer of the Harlem Renaissance and refused to perform without dark-skinned women onstage. The women he called his "Chocolate Bunnies" can be seen posing at the front of his troupe.

Calloway brought the "Bubbling Brown Sugar" revue to the Cotton Club when he began performing there. A revue is a multi-act performance including dance, music, and skits. "Bubbling Brown Sugar" featured performers such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, and Earl Hines. In 1976, the revue opened on Broadway.