THE STORY: After thirty years on the route from Harlem to Coney Island, Captain Obadiah Rich’s excursion steamship “Happiness” is about to be taken out of service and made into a garbage scow. Captain Rich rebels at the idea and on the final cruise heads his antique tub straight for a magic island south of Trinidad, where his oddly assorted passengers can begin existence anew under luxuriant tropical auspices. The boat sails into the unknown with each person planning what he will do to realize his ideal. Reality suddenly brings them to a standstill, but the dawning of the next day’s sun carries with it the realization that each has learned to look upon his troubles through different eyes. The men, women, and children who sail on the “S.S. Happiness” are typical inhabitants of our modern cities-shop girls and students, romantic youngsters and hard-working grown-ups, rich and poor.
