April 9, 1943: "Cabin In the Sky” Premieres

Left to right: Ethel Waters, Kenneth Spencer,

Eddie Anderson, Lena Horne and Rex Ingram

April 9, 1943: Cabin In the Sky premieres, based on the 1940 Broadway musical of the same title. Although it was directed by a white man, Vincente Minnelli (not yet Mr. Judy Garland), it had a nearly all-black cast, including Ethel Waters and Rex Ingram, who reprised their roles from the stage musical. It was submitted to the NAACP before its release, and was approved.

It also stars Eddie Anderson (Rochester from The Jack Benny Program), Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Gone With the Wind veteran Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen.

Anderson plays Little Joe, a well-meaning yet weak man, whose attempts at redemption are cut short when he is killed over gambling debts by big-shot Domino Johnson. Domino was played by John William Sublett, who used the stage name John W. Bubbles. In 1935, he was personally chosen by composer George Gershwin to play drug dealer Sportin' Life in the debut of Porgy and Bess.

On his deathbed, Little Joe is resurrected by angelic powers, and given 6 months to redeem his soul and become worthy of entering Heaven. Otherwise, he will be sent the other way. Secretly guided by "The General" (the Lord's Angel, played by opera singer Kenneth Spencer), Little Joe gives up his shiftless ways, and becomes a hardworking, generous, and loving husband to his wife Petunia (Waters), whom he had previously neglected.

Demon Lucifer Jr. (the son of Satan himself, played by Ingram) is determined to drag Little Joe to Hell, and attempts to do so in many ways, including by arranging for Joe to become wealthy by winning a lottery; reintroducing Joe to a beautiful gold-digger, Georgia Brown (Horne); and manipulating the marital discord between Joe and Petunia. His tactics work: Little Joe abandons his wife for Georgia, and the two embark on a life of hedonistic pleasure.

As Little Joe and Georgia celebrate at a nightclub one evening, Petunia joins them, determined to win Joe back. Little Joe fights with Domino for Petunia, and Petunia, anguished at this turn of events, prays to God to destroy the nightclub. It works: A tornado leaves the nightclub in ruins, as Joe and Petunia lie dead in the ruins after being shot by Domino.

Just as it appears that Joe's soul is lost forever, the angelic General informs him that Georgia Brown was so affected by the tragedy that she has donated all the money that Joe had lavished upon her to the church. On this technicality, Little Joe is allowed to go to Heaven with Petunia.

As the two climb the Celestial Stairs, Joe suddenly wakes in his own bed. Joe had not been killed in the initial gambling-debt fracas, only wounded. All his supposed dealings with angels and demons were only a fever dream. Now genuinely reformed, Little Joe begins a new happy life with his loving Petunia.

Songs include the title track, written by Vernon Duke and John La Touche, and sung by Waters and Anderson; "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe," written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, and sung by Waters; "Taking a Chance On Love," written by La Touche and Ted Fetter, and sung by Waters; and "Going Up," written by Ellington and performed by his orchestra.

La Touche died of a heart attack in 1956, only 41 years old. Spencer died in a plane crash in 1964. Duke and Ingram died in 1969, Armstrong in 1971, Ellington in 1974, Waters and Anderson in 1977, Harburg in 1981; Arlen, Bubbles and Minnelli in 1986; McQueen in 1995, Fetter in 1996, and Horne in 2010.

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April 9, 1943 was a Friday. Music producer Terry Knight was born.

There were no scores on this historic day. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the hockey season had ended the day before, as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 2-0 at the Boston Garden, to complete a 4-game sweep of the Finals and win the Stanley Cup.