Prologue: Ragtime

[LITTLE BOY, spoken]
In 1902, Father built a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York, and it seemed for some years thereafter that all the family's days would be warm and fair.

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]
The skies were blue and hazy
Rarely a storm
Barely a chill

[WOMEN]
La, la la la la

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]
The afternoons were lazy
Everyone warm
Everything still

[MEN]
La, la la la la

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]
And there was distant music
Simple and somehow sublime
Giving the nation
A new syncopation
The people called it ragtime

[FATHER, spoken]
Father was well-off—very well-off. His considerable income was derived from the manufacture of fireworks and bunting and other accoutrements of patriotism. Father was also something of an amateur explorer.

[MOTHER, spoken]
The house on the hill in New Rochelle was Mother's domain. She took pleasure in making it comfortable for the men of her family and often told herself how fortunate she was to be so protected and provided for by her husband.

[YOUNGER BROTHER, spoken]
Mother's Younger Brother worked at Father's fireworks factory. He was a genius at explosives. He was also a young man in search of something to believe in. His sister wondered when he would find it.

[GRANDFATHER, spoken]
Grandfather had been a professor of Greek and Latin. Now retired and living with his daughter and her family, he was thoroughly irritated by everything.

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]
The days were gently tinted
Lavender, pink, lemon, and lime

[MOTHER]
Ladies with parasols

[YOUNGER BROTHER]
Fellows with tennis balls

[FATHER]
There were gazebos
And there were no Negroes

[PEOPLE OF HARLEM]
And everything was ragtime
Listen to that ragtime

[COALHOUSE, spoken]
In Harlem, men and women of color forgot their troubles and danced and reveled to the music of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. This was a music that was theirs and no one else's.

[SARAH, spoken]
One young woman thought Coalhouse played just for her. Her name was Sarah.

[BOOKER. T. WASHINGTON, spoken]
Booker T. Washington was the most famous Negro in the country. He counseled friendship between the races and spoke of the promise of the future. He had no patience for Negroes who lived less than exemplary lives.

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]
Ladies with parasols
Fellows with tennis balls
There were no Negroes
And there were no immigrants

[TATEH, spoken]
In Latvia, a man dreamed of a new life for his little girl. It would be a long journey, a terrible one. He would not lose her as he had her mother. His name was Tateh. He never spoke of his wife. The little girl was all he had now. Together, they would escape.

[LITTLE BOY, spoken]
Houdini! Look, it's Houdini!

[PEOPLE, spoken]
Ooh! Ah!
Ooh! Ah!

[HOUDINI, spoken]
Harry Houdini was one immigrant who made an art of escape. He was a headliner in the top vaudeville circuits.

[HOUDINI'S MOTHER, spoken]
Ich bin die Mutter des großen Houdinis!

[HOUDINI, spoken]
He made his mother proud. But for all his achievements, he knew he was only an illusionist. He wanted to believe there was more. Hello, sonny.

[LITTLE BOY, spoken]
Warn the Duke!

[HOUDINI, spoken]
What did you say?

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]
And there was distant music
Changing the tune, changing the time

[PEOPLE OF HARLEM]
Giving the nation
A new syncopation

[ALL]
La, la, la

[MEN]
La, la, la...

[J.P. MORGAN, spoken]
Certain men make a country great.

[HENRY FORD, spoken]
They can't help it.

[J.P. MORGAN, spoken]
At the very apex of the American pyramid—

[HENRY FORD, spoken]
That's the very tip-top!

[J.P. MORGAN, spoken]
Like pharaohs reincarnate, stood J.P. Morgan—

[HENRY FORD, spoken]
And Henry Ford!

[J.P. MORGAN, spoken]
All men are born equal—

[HENRY FORD, spoken]
But the cream rises to the top!

[EMMA GOLDMAN, spoken]
Let me at those sons of bitches! These men are the demons who are sucking your very souls dry! I hate them!

[J.P. MORGAN, spoken]
Someone should arrest that woman!

[EMMA GOLDMAN, spoken]
The radical anarchist Emma Goldman fought against the ravages of American capitalism as she watched her fellow immigrants' hopes turn to despair on the Lower East Side.

[EVELYN NESBIT]
La la, la la, la la, la la la
Whee!

[EMMA GOLDMAN, spoken]
But America was watching another drama.

[EVELYN NESBIT, spoken]
Evelyn Nesbit was the most beautiful woman in America. If she wore her hair in curls, every woman wore her hair in curls.

[STANFORD WHITE, spoken]
Her lover was the eminent architect, Stanford White, designer of the Pennsylvania Station on 33rd Street.

[EVELYN NESBIT, spoken]
Oh, whee!

[HARRY K. THAW, spoken]
Her husband, the eccentric millionaire Harry K. Thaw, was a violent man.

[EVELYN NESBIT, spoken]
After her husband shot her lover, Evelyn became the biggest attraction in vaudeville since Tom Thumb.

[NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN]
La la, la la la

[MEN]
Bang!

[NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN]
La la la

[MEN]
Bang!

[NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN]
La

[MEN]
Bang!

[EMMA GOLDMAN, spoken]
And although the newspapers called the shooting "The Crime of the Century," Goldman knew it was only 1906—

[ALL]
And there were ninety-four years to go!

[EMMA GOLDMAN, spoken]
Whee!

[ALL]
And there was music playing
Catching a nation in its prime
Beggar and millionaire
Everyone, everywhere
Moving to the ragtime

[The dance swirls around MOTHER, TATEH, and COALHOUSE. BLACKS, WHITES, and IMMIGRANTS find themselves in moments of contact or confrontation.]

[ALL]
And there was distant music
Skipping a beat
Singing a dream

[WOMEN]
La, la la la la

[ALL]
A strange, insistent music
Putting out heat
Picking up steam

[MEN]
La, la la la la

[ALL]
The sound of distant thunder
Suddenly starting to climb
It was the music
Of something beginning
An era exploding
A century spinning
In riches and rags
And in rhythm and rhyme
The people called it ragtime
Ragtime (Ragtime)
Ragtime (Ragtime)
Ragtime (Ragtime, ragtime)