October 22, 1933: Ethel Waters Records "Stormy Weather"

October 22, 1933: Ethel Waters records "Stormy Weather," with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. The song was written by Harold Arlen (1905-1986) and Ted Koehler (1894-1973), and she had sung it at Harlem's famed Cotton Club, at 142nd Street & Lenox Avenue. (Arlen should not be confused with a contemporary, radio announcer Harold Arlin.)

She was born on October 31, 1896, outside Philadelphia in Chester, Pennsylvania. She became one of the top jazz singers of all time. In 1950, ABC made her the 1st black actress to star in a TV series, Beulah. She quit after one season, finding the scripts degrading. For a 1961 guest appearance on Route 66, she became the 1st black person of either gender to be nominated for an Emmy Award in a dramatic role, and the 1st black woman to be nominated for any Emmy. She lived until September 1, 1977.

In 1943, "Stormy Weather" was featured in a film of the same title, sung by Lena Horne, who had first recorded it in 1941. With some irony, also in 1943, Waters and Horne both starred in another mostly-black-cast film, Cabin in the Sky, with Waters playing the honest wife of a troubled man, and Horne playing the femme fatale who tempts him.

Other notable versions have been Billie Holiday in 1955, a doo-wop version by The Spaniels in 1958, and the Red Garland Trio's instrumental version in 1959, familiar to listeners of American Public Media's Marketplace radio show, which plays Garland's version as background accompaniment whenever news of a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average occurs.

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October 22, 1933 was a Sunday. Baseball season was over, the NHL season hadn't started yet, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet.

This was the year that Pennsylvania finally legalized professional sports on Sundays, making the newly-formed NFL teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Pirates (who would become the Steelers in 1940), a good long-term proposition. These games were played that day:

* The football version of the New York Giants beat the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, 21-7 at the Polo Grounds. The football Dodgers went out of business in 1945.

* The Boston Redskins beat the Chicago Cardinals, 10-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. These teams are known today as the Washington Commanders and the Arizona Cardinals, respectively.

* The football versions of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds played to a tie, 0-0 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. The following year, the ballpark was renamed Crosley Field, and these Reds went out of business. These Pirates became the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1940.

* And the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers, 10-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

August 25, 1939: "The Wizard of Oz" Premieres

Left to right: Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr

August 25, 1939: The Wizard of Oz premieres, a film musical based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Victor Fleming directed it.

Judy Garland -- at 16 years old when the movie was filmed, too old for the part -- plays Dorothy Gale, living in rural Kansas during the Great Depression. (This does reflect the novel, for which the depression of 1893-98 was recent). A tornado takes her out of that milieu, and deposits her in Oz, with the film going from black and white to color.

One thing leads to another, and she goes on an adventure with a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), a Tin Man (Jack Haley) and a Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), in search of the titular Wizard (Frank Morgan). But in their way is the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton).

The film was a critical success, nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won Best Original Score and Best Original Song, for "Over the Rainbow," written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer boss Louis B. Mayer wanted the song dropped, because it slowed the film down. The producers threatened to quit, and Mayer backed down.

Over the 30 years remaining to Garland's life and career, it became her signature song. In 1999, a poll named it the Number 1 Song of the Century.

But the film didn't make a profit at first. It was re-released in 1949, and that's when it finally got into the black. In 1956, CBS broadcast it for the 1st time, and broadcast it once a year until the 1990s, by which point pretty much anybody who wanted to could buy it on video. It is the most-viewed movie in history.

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August 25, 1939 was a Friday. The NFL and the NHL were in the off-season, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet. And only 5 Major League Baseball games were played that day, 2 of them as a doubleheader:

* The New York Yankees swept the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. They won the opener 11-0, as Steve Sundra pitched a 4-hit shutout, Joe Gordon hit 2 home runs and had 5 RBIs. Gordon, Frank Crosetti and Red Rolfe each had 3 hits. They won the nightcap 8-2, supporting Left Gomez with 2 hits each by Crosetti, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey and Charlie Keller.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-0 at League Park in Cleveland. Harry Eisenstat pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. It would be renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

So the entire American League played that day, but the entire National League didn't.

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.