∙ "Stormy Weather" is loosely based on the life of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. In the movie, Lena Horne plays a love interest that Bill Robinson didn’t have in real life.
∙ "Stormy Weather" was the second all-black cast film made by a major studio in the 1940s. The first one was Cabin in the Sky, another Top 100 BlackClassicMovies.com film. Lena Horne starred in both films.
∙ Lena Horne became famous for singing her rendition of “Stormy Weather” in this movie. The song was written ten years earlier by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Ethel Waters first sang it in 1933 at The Cotton Club night club in Harlem. (For more info about the song "Stormy Weather" see below.)
∙ This is one of Lena Horne’s few major film roles. She didn’t perform in many films because she refused to accept roles that were demeaning to her and the movie studio didn't have many, non-demeaning roles for her to play. Consequently, she only sang in many of the MGM films that she was cast in. Two more of her movies, The Duke is Tops and The Wiz, are Top 100 BlackClassicMovies.com films. (To learn more about Lena Horne's movie career, read our profile by Clicking Here.)
∙ At the time that Stormy Weather was made, Bill Robinson was forty years older than Lena Horne. She was 25 years old and Bill Robinson was 65 years old.
∙ This was the last film that Bill “Bojangles” Robinson did before he died of heart disease in 1949.
∙ Fats Waller also died of pneumonia within five months of the "Stormy Weather" movie premier. His performance of the songs Ain't Misbehavin' and That Ain't Right are standouts in the film.
∙ The famous dance scene that the Nicholas Brothers do at the end of the film was apparently done in one take. |
