Remembering Ragtime
Memories from the making of the classic Milos Forman film "Ragtime".
Ragtime
A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.
The Sting
A novice con man teams up with an acknowledged master to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster.
Bolden
A mythical account of the life of Buddy Bolden, the first Cornet King of New Orleans.
One Froggy Evening
A workman finds a singing frog in the cornerstone of an old building being demolished. But when he tries to cash in on his discovery, he finds the frog will sing only for him, and just croak for the talent agent and the audience in the theater he's spent his life savings on.
Alexander's Ragtime Band
Classical violinist Roger Grant disappoints his family and teacher when he organizes a jazz band, but he and the band become successful. Roger falls in love with the band's singer, Stella, but his reluctance to lose her leads him to thwart her efforts to become a solo star. When the World War separates them in 1917, Stella marries Roger's best friend and, when Roger returns home after the war, an important concert at Carnegie Hall brings the corners of the romantic triangle together.
The Ragtime Band
Professor Smelts the band leader gets into a romantic rivalry with one of his musicians over the affections of a pretty girl.
Scott Joplin: King of Ragtime Composers
A short 1977 documentary about the originator of the ragtime rhythm.
A Symposium on Popular Songs
Professor Ludwig von Drake plays a variety of popular music, all of which he wrote. First, ragtime: the Rutabaga Rag, with vegetables dancing in stop-motion. Next, the Charleston, with cut-out animation of a singer and dancers. Dixieland and more cut-out animation; the crooner/love ballad; 50's doo-wop; and finally, rockabilly.
The Band Beautiful
The Ingenues perform "Tiger Rag," "Changes," "Mighty Lak' a Rose," "Keep Sweeping the Cobwebs Off the Moon," and "Shaking the Blues Away."
Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert
The Boston Pops performs Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert, prepared by the original creators Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty especially for the Pops. Based on the 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime weaves together the stories of three intersecting groups in the U.S. in the early 20th century: Eastern European immigrants, the African American community in Harlem, and an upper-class white family. Together, they confront history's timeless tensions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair.