He did recordings released on HiTone and Signature, two small labels. For RCA Victor's resurrected Bluebird Series, they cut "I Beeped When I Shoulda Bopped," a tongue-in-cheek dialogue about the shift in favor from Cab's "hi-de-hos" to the new language of jazz bebop. The tune was written by, ironically, Dizzy Gillespie.

Television, the new visual medium, provided some opportunities for work, including the "Cavalcade of Bands" and "The Nat King Cole Trio Time" programs. The Cabaliers also made a number of Snader Telescriptions, which were similar to "Soundies." An unexpected turning point in Calloway's career came shortly afterwards, from the legitimate musical theater. Composer George Gershwin had written the score for the stage musical "Porgy and Bess" in 1935. Gershwin used to spend a lot of time in the Cotton Club during the early '30s, and one of his characterizations, "Sportin' Life"- was drawn directly from Cab's performances. Calloway was offered the role in that original production, but turned it down, because his band was booked to travel abroad.

When "Porgy and Bess" was revived, in 1952, for a world tour, sponsored by the U.S. State Department, Calloway was again approached, and, this time, accepted the role of "Sportin' Life." Leontyne Price starred as "Bess," William Warfield and, later, Leslie Scott played "Porgy," and John McCurry was "Crown." "Porgy and Bess" opened in Dallas that June, then went on to London and Paris. It also played Moscow triumphantly, during the height of the Cold War. During a performance in New York City, RCA Victor recorded highlights of "Porgy and Bess," including Cab's "It Ain't Necessarily So."

After "Porgy" closed in 1954, Cab continued working as a single. His cover versions of popular hits, including "Gambler's Guitar" (Rusty Draper), "Hey Joe" (Frankie Laine), "Such a Night" Johnnie Ray), "Learnin' the Blues" (Frank Sinatra), and "Unchained Melody" (Al Hibbler) deservedly fell flat. Changing gears, he then teamed with Lael, one of his daughters. "When Lael was eight, my manager and I dreamed up an idea for us to do a father-daughter routine," Calloway explained. Their recording of "Little Child," (an adaptation of the touching French song "Little Boy and the Old Man," gained slight notoriety, at #62 on the Billboard chart, in early 1956. But Lael was a young girl, who would rather play than memorize song lyrics or dress up in a frilly outfit. "She would pout and grimace and frown every time we had to get ready to do a performance," Cab recalled. "After about five months we gave it up."

There was a memorable night when the entire Calloway family appeared on "Person-to-Person," hosted by famed newsman Edward R. Murrow, on CBS. "It was quite an event to be on national television in those days," Cab pointed out, "and of course Edward R. Murrow was one of the greatest broadcasters of his time." Over the next 10 years, Calloway would, in fact, be invited as a guest on some 250 TV shows, including Milton Berle, Red;Skelton, Steve Allen, and Jackie Gleason.

In 1957, Cab went to Hollywood for "St. Louis Blues," the Paramount motion picture biography of composer W.C. Handy, which also featured Nat "King" Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Pearl Bailey, and Eartha Kitt. Calloway played a fictitious character named "Blade." Back in New York City that July, Cab starred in Central Park's Theatre Under the Stars, in a Cotton Club-type revue, produced and written by Benny Davis, who had done shows at the Cotton Club 20 years before. Songs in the new edition included "Born to Be Happy," "Tzotskele (My Darling)," "Beginnin' of Sinnin" and "Sweeter Than Sweet." Gone, an independent label in New York City, recorded those selections as part of an album, Cotton Club Revue 1958. Cab included old hands Lammar Wright and Johnny Letman on trumpet, and Eddie Brefield on alto saxophone in the orchestra backing. Barefield, in fact, did the arrangements and conducted, and it came out okay.

In 1958, Calloway recorded again, this time in Living Stereo for RCA Victor, with a group of top New York City studio musicians, including trumpeter Joe Wilder, pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Everett Barksdale, and two Calloway band alumni, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer J.C. Heard. There's a nice, new arrangement of "I See a Million People (But All I Can See Is You)," using, curiously, the Glenn Miller reed sound. The album seems to have too much echo on Cab's voice, causing it to sound overly nasal or "pinched." When Columbia did a soundtrack album of Samuel -Goldwyn's movie version of "Porgy and Bess" around 1959, Cab sang "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "There's a Boat That's Leavin' for .New York" on it. "Sammy Davis, Jr. who acts -and sings the role of Sportin' Life in the motion picture, is not heard here, due to exclusive recording commitments; the role is sung by Cab Calloway, who toured extensively in the part," the liner notes stated.

Calloway signed with Coral in 1960, making a few pop singles, and Blues Make Me Happy, an album of 12 blues songs, including. "I Get the Blues When It Rains" and "Cry Me a River," both with strings. Cab sang very well, with much feeling, like he was really into this project, but the arrangements, by Dick Jacobs, are far from the Calloway style. Besides, now, the sound engineers added a monstrous, distracting echo to Cab's voice. In the mid-60s, Cab spiced up the halftime show at Harlem Globetrotters basketball games. "I would walk out into the middle of the court, and they would roll out a piano with me and my pianist and I would let them have it. All the old tunes, all the pop tunes," he recalled. Reportedly, Calloway had in 1928, turned down a contract to play basketball with the Globetrotters.

Cab was in a non-singing, dramatic role in "The Cincinnati Kid", an MGM motion picture starring Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann-Margret, and Karl Malden, in 1965. The following year, Calloway appeared in the movie 'A Man Called Adam.' Record producer Bob Thiele approached Cab to narrate an unusual piece of material. "History Repeats ltself" discussed the startling similarities between the Presidential administrations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. The single, on Boom, entered the Billboard popularity chart on April 16, 1966, and went to #89 during its three-week stay.