Ragtime

(In the darkness, a door swings open. THE LITTLE BOY is silhouetted in the shaft of light from the open door. He walks down the shaft of light to a stereopticon viewer on the floor, picks it up and brings it to his eyes. Two scrims, each with an image of a large Victorian house, its inhabitants and neighbours, merge and leap into three-dimension, as the picture comes alive: the genteel, white, upper-middle-class world of New Rochelle.)

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.

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.

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 potected and provided for by her husband.

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

Grandfather had been a professor of Greek and Latin. Now retired and living with his daughter and her famil, he was thoroughly iritated by everything.

In Harlem, men and women of colour 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.

Booker T. Washington was the most famous Negro in the country. He counselled friendship between the races and spoke of the promise of the future. He had no patience with Negroes who lived less than exemplary lives.

(IMMIGRANTS cross the stage, bound for America. TATEH and THE LITTLE GIRL join them, poorly clothed and undernourished.)

His name was Tateh. He never spoke of his wife. The little girl was all he had now. Together, they would escape.

(HARRY HOUDINI appears above the crowd, performing one of his death=defying feats, suspended upside down in a strait jacket.)

He made his mother proud. But for all his achievements, he kknew he was only an illusionist. He wanted to believe there was more...

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 was the most beautiful woman in America. If she wore her hair in curls, every woman wore her hair in curls.

(The dance swirls around our three principals--MOTHER, TATEH and COALHOUSE--increasing in intensity. BLACKS, WHITES and IMMIGRANTS find themselves in moments of contact or confrontation; there is the potential for violence.)

(On the dock in New York Harbour, MOTHER waves farewell to FATHER as he boards the S.S. Roosevelt, bound for the North Pole.)

They're called rag ships. Immigrants from every cesspool in western and eastern Europe. Most of them become very patriotic Americans. They're your future customers.

MOTHER And what of the people Whose boundaries chafe Who marry so bravely And end up so safe I will be journeying Here, my love As you go Journeying On the sea

FATHER I salute you, My friend As you go Journeying On the sea

TATEH May you find What you need As you go Journeying On the sea

(YOUNGER BROTHER arrives at a Manhattan vaudeville theatre to see EVELYN NESBIT perform her popular musical re-enactment of her lover's murder. THE JUDGE, JURY, SOB SISTERS and CHORINES run onstage in chaos. MOTHER'S YOUNGER BROTHER runs to his seat in the second balcony, a spectator at the "Trial of the Century".)

Mother's Younger Brother was in love with Evelyn Nesbit. From his regular seat in the front row of the second balcony, he would lean far over the railing, hoping his goddess would notice him. One night he almost fell. Evelyn caught sight of him and smiled. Life was suddenly wonderful and full of delicious possibilities.

(After the show, YOUNGER BROTHER tells EVELYN that he is in love with her, but she humiliates him in front of the press. We hear a reprise of "Crime of the Century", but now MOTHER sings it as she enters her garden to work. YOUNGER BROTHER runs off, upset. MOTHER begins to dig in the earth, chatting with THE LITTLE BOY. All at once, she stops.)

(On Ellis Island, waves of immigrants arrive and wait for processing, going through a series of massive, forbidding gates. TATEH and THE LITTLE GIRL are at the centre of the crowd.)

TATEH, THE LITTLE GIRL, JEWISH IMMIGRANTS Mir zoln azoy lebn Mil khomes, biksn Mentshn blut A gubernator darf Mennit, A keyser orf Kapores. Amerike! Amerike! Amerike! Amerike! Amerike!

ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS Bel massolino Di fior Merica, Merica Bel massolino Di fior Merica, Merica Bel massolino Di fior. Merica! Merica! Merica! Merica! Merica! Merica! Merica! Merica! America!

HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS Gran mesi, Washington Ki ba nou l'Amerik. Gran mesi, Washington Gran mesi, Washington Ki ba nou l'Amerik. L'Amerik! L'Amerik! L'Amerik! L'Amerik! America!

Step right up and have a silhouette made by a real artist! With ordinary paper, a pair of scissors and some glue, I will give you a thing of such beauty! A life-like portrait of someone you love. Silhouettes of your favourite celebrity.

(Now J.P. MORGAN appears high above the masses on a "bridge". As he sings, the bridge lowers until it practically crushes the IMMIGRANTS.)

The angry, fetid tenements of the Lower East Side were worse than anything Tateh and his wife had suffered in Latvia. The littl girl was often sick now. Tateh wrapped her in his prayer shawl. What rabbi would disapprove?

(EMMA invites TATEH to a rally but he is only interested in his own and his daughter's survival. A man on the street approaches and offers TATEH money, not for a silhouette but for THE LITTLE GIRL. TATEH attacks him, and has to be pulled off by a policeman. Furious and desperate, TATEH holds THE LITTLE GIRL close to him. He can no longer escape the reality of his failure and unfulfilled dreams.)

(With new determination, TATEH and THE LITTLE GIRL pack their belongings onto his peddlar's cart and push it offstage.)

The Good Lord looked down, saw me lonely and loveless, and thought to Himself: "Enough is enough. I'm putting Sarah in Coalhouse's life."

This wasn't a woman. This was an angel, a gift of God. Coalhouse loved this woman, but not wisely and not too well. She left me without a word or trace. There was no pity for me.

And then this morning, the miracle happened. I found out where she is, and I'm going to do my damnedest to see she takes me back. Ladies and gentlemen, the Gettin' Ready Rag!

(The trolley station in New Rochelle, MOTHER and THE LITTLE BOY are on their way to FATHER'S factory to look after his business in his absence. TATEH and THE LITTLE GIRL appear on the opposite side of the trolley tracks. TATEH has put a rope around her arm, which he keeps tied around his own waist.)

I see! I see. He's afraid of losing her. Immigrants are terrified of losing their children. So are we, but just not so conspicuously. Don't stare. It's not polite to stare.

He's a rude little boy. Ignore him. People of good breeding do not stare at other people. They acknowledge them politely with a bow. Like this.

MOTHER Sshh. Do not by rude! He talks. TATEH I see that. MOTHER He also stares. You'd think He'd never Seen someone From New York City. TATEH That's children, Isn't it? MOTHER Isn't it? BOTH Always another surprise, Isn't it?

THE LITTLE BOY I never knew anyone Who stayed on a rope Like a puppy dog. What does it feel like? THE LITTLE GIRL Safe. THE LITTLE BOY Safe? THE LITTLE GIRL Yes. THE LITTLE BOY Everyone's safe in New Rochelle. THE LITTLE GIRL Safe? THE LITTLE BOY yes.

(The FIREMEN of the Emerald Isle Firehouse enter and, simultaneously, COALHOUSE drives up and stops to ask directions. Chief Willie Conklin hurls racist abuse at COALHOUSE and warns him not to pass that way again. As they exit, SARAH appears, alone in her attic in New Rochelle.)

(COALHOUSE opens the screen door, comes into the kitchen and looks down at his son. He picks him up, crooning to him.)

(MOTHER comes back into the kitchen and is upset to see that COALHOUSE has presumed to come into the house and pick up the baby.)

(COALHOUSE enters and chats with MOTHER. She invites him to play something on the piano. A recalcitrant SARAH stays up in her room. COALHOUSE tests the piano.)

(A passage of time, in which FATHER arrives home unannounced from the North Pole to find a wife who works, a son who seems all grown up, SARAH and the baby in the attic, and a black man at the piano in the living room.)

SARAH You and your music, Singing deep in me, Making nice to me Saying something so new... Changing everything Meaning everything Callin my heart to you Play that melody Your sweet melody Calling my heart to you

COALHOUSE New Music All for you, girl You, Sarah You

(On a picnic on an idyllic hillside in the country, COALHOUSE has been polishing his car. SARAH is amused at his fastidiousness, but COALHOUSE explains to her that this car will take them and their son to a better place and time. SARAH tenderly gives the baby to COALHOUSE.)

COALHOUSE We'll go down South And see your people Won't they take to him Like cats to cream!

SARAH Go down South, See my folks. They'll take to him Mmm...

I have just returned from Lawrence, Massachusetts where, eight weeks ago, the workers there went on strike. They are starving, their children are dying but they are holding firm, and we must support them.

What is happening in Lawrence is happening everything. Let us at last make this the land of opportunity for all people, not just the owners. The land of opportunity for Tateh and his little girl. We cannot rest!

YOUNGER BROTHER Like a firework unexploded, Wanting life but never knowing how... RALLYERS Strike! YOUNGER BROTHER Till now!

EMMA My brother, Life has meaning I'll show you how! My brother, you are with us now!

(EMMA is arrested, and the scene changes to Lawrence, Massachusetts. The militia is assembled as STRIKERS gather to send their children to safety for the duration fo the strike.)

(TATEH gives THE LITTLE GIRL to a woman boarding the train for Philadelphia and safety. MILITIAMEN raise their rifles. WOMEN scream. Suddenly, violence is everywhere. A woman near TATEH is struck down by a militiaman and falls to the ground. As TATEH bend to help her...)

(...a POLICEMAN cracks him on the head with his nightstick. We hear the sound of the train beginning to move off.)

(TATEH begins to run in the direction of the train. As THE LITTLE GIRL'S voice gets fainter, TATEH jumps on to the back of the train. He climbs onto the caboose and holds the LITTLE GIRL.)

Your father is a smart man! With this money, we'll get a clean bed and a hot bath, and tomorrow we will make more of these and we will sell them for two dollars. Tateh's movie book! Everyone will want them. They just don't know that yet!

(COALHOUSE and SARAH and the baby are returning to New Rochelle in the Model T. They find their way barred by WILLIE CONKLIN and the EMERALD ISLE FIREMEN.)

Well, you can sign another complaint, Mr. Walker, but volunteer firemen are not municipal employees, and therefore do not come under the jurisdiction of the city. I'm sorry.

I'm still tracing your first complaint, Mr. Walker. Are you sure you filed it with this office. Let me look again.

I want justice for our people so bad I can taste it. But I won't waste my time on a mere case of vandalism when I have real injustices to take to the courts.

(The Vice Presidential campaign enters. Posters, banners, a marching band, the incumbent candidate waving. He poses for photographs with J.P. MORGAN on the back of a train.)

The Republican vice-presidential candidate was to be in the city that evening to attend a rally. The Secret Service was at the ready. The recent assassination of President McKinley had been a lesson well learned.

(The CROWD, MORGAN, THE CANDIDATE and POLICEMEN disappear. COALHOUSE enters and rushes to SARAH'S lifeless body.)

OTHER MOURNERS It's a day of peace. A day of pride A day of justice We have been denied When a man can live And a child can play We'll never get to heaven Till we reach that day

SARAH'S FRIEND A day of pride It's been denied

MOURNERS A day of peace A day of pride A day of justice We have been denied Let the new day dawn Oh Lord...

COALHOUSE There was blood on the ground COALHOUSE, EMMA, MOTHER She was only a girl COALHOUSE, EMMA, YOUNGER BROTHER, MOTHER, FATHER It will happen again ABOVE, PLUS IMMIGRANTS, HARLEM It will happen again And again and again

(In THE LITTLE BOY'S dream, FIREMEN shut HOUDINI up in a box suspended by chains in the air. They throw in a time bomb and lock him in. The box rises. There is an enormous explosion. The box bursts open. It is empty. Pendemonium on stage as WILLIE and the FIREMEN rush off. HOUDINI appears in a box seat in the audience. He bows and exits, as the dream ends and THE LITTLE BOY wakes up.)

HARLEM WOMEN (Group 1) Not one of ours Never heard of him We don't want any trouble Not one of ours

HARLEM WOMEN (Group 2) Not one of ours Never heard of him Don't want any trouble Not one of ours

GROUP 1 No one knows what he looks like No one knows where he is No one knows how to Stop him... GROUP 1 Somewhere in the city There's a madman waiting Standing in the shadows With a gun in his hand ALL A man of colour Who is calmly stating Coalhouse demands Somewhere in the city Coalhouse!

CONKLIN, OTHERS Somewhere in the city Waiting in the dark Stop him! CONKLIN, GROUP 2 Somewhere in the city Standing in the shadows COALHOUSE & HIS MEN We'll play them the music Of something beginning! An era exploding, A century spinning-- Listen to that Ragtime!

(The house in New Rochelle. FATHER has gone to the police to tell them what he knows about the "Negro maniac", while YOUNGER BROTHER sympathizes with COALHOUSE and despises FATHER for his complacency. A violent argument erupts, and YOUNGER BROTHER storms out. MOTHER urges her husband to explain things to their young son, but, instead, FATHER decides to take the boy to a baseball game.)

(The Polo Grounds. A game is in progress. The stands are packed with raucous FANS from all walks of life. FATHER and THE LITTLE BOY are conspicuously different.)

(THE LITTLE BOY stands up. He knows what will happen next. FATHER realizes with a start the ball is coming right at them. THE LITTLE BOY holds up his hand and catches it.)

(We hear gunfire, and see the headlines of COALHOUSE'S latest act. His face is in the news, and it seems as if the city is on fire. The gang is setting firehouses ablaze. WILLIE CONKLIN leaves town in terror.)

(FATHER and MOTHER are besieged by reporters and welfare officials. As they argue, EVELYN NESBIT suddenly enters, changing the mood.)

It was clear to Father that the crisis was driving the spirit from their lives. He had always secretly believed that as a family they were touched by an extra light. He felt it going now.

(FATHER exits. Atlantic City is now revealed: elegant couples on the boardwalk in front of a panoramic view of the seaside.)

(The VACATIONERS exit, following the RAGTIME BAND, as the Million Dollar Pier appears with HARRY HOUDINI and EVELYN NESBIT headlining in vaudeville.)

HARRY Harry Houdini Master escapist Buried and chained and tied. Reaching for danger Darker and stranger Now that his mama's died. Conquering fear In hopes he will hear A voice form the other side...

EVELYN Oh, justice can be so unfair! Bang! There goes your millionaire! Whee!

HOUDINI Let's run away Let's run Away Away ALL Let's run away to Atlantic City Let's run away

EVELYN Let's run away Let's run away Away... Away... Let's run away Let's run away

(The foregoing has all been part of a movie which is being filmed by the BARON ASHKENAZY on the Boardwalk. We suddenly recognized the BARON as TATEH, now dashing, confident, and totally recreated. He spots the family and, attracted by MOTHER'S beauty, begins to tell them his life story. MOTHER is charmed, and FATHER is annoyed.)

(The BARON exits, filming a "fast motion" parade of dancers. THE LITTLE BOY remains on the Boardwalk as night falls. HOUDINI enters. He is leaving for Sarajevo. THE LITTLE BOY stops him and tells him to "Warn the Duke!" Next morning on the Boardwalk, MOTHER encounters the BARON again, and they watch their children play on the beach.)

I'm not a Baron, of course. I'm a poor immigrant, a Jew, who points a camera so that his child can dress as beautifully as a princess. I want to drive from her memory every tenement stench and filthy immigrant street. I will buy her light and sun and clean wind of the ocean for the rest of her life. Now you know me. Now you understand. I am no Baron. I am Tateh.

(Harlem, late at night. YOUNGER BROTHER has been trying to find COALHOUSE, but is met by hostility from the community. COALHOUSE appears in the shadows, and signals to one of his MEN to bring YOUNGER BROTHER to him. COALHOUSE remains onstage as they exit.)

(Loud rag piano comes out of a club. Carefree men come onto the street, laughing, dancing. One stays behind, joined by a young woman. COALHOUSE watches the young couple dance a romantic PAS DE DEUX and go off into the warm night. They remind COALHOUSE of the first night he met SARAH, and suddenly, magically, she is there.)

(As COALHOUSE and YOUNGER BROTHER shake hands, there is an enormous explosion, very present, very terrifying. And suddenly we are on the Boardwalk. FATHER approaches MOTHER and tells her that he must return to New York. COALHOUSE and his MEN have taken over the Morgan Library and are threatening to blow it up. FATHER tells MOTHER that once the situation is resolved, everything will be the way it was before. But MOTHER vows she will never relinquish COALHOUSE'S child. Things will never be the same. FATHER exits.)

Coalhouse Walker's strategy of vengeance seemed to some the final proof of his insanity. Only a madman would shift the focus of his rage from Willie Conklin, a common bigot, to J.P. Morgan, the most uncommon and powerful man of his time.

(We are outside the impressive facade of the Morgan Library. A cluster of POLICE and REPORTERS, J.P. MORGAN trying to impress a flustered DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHARLES S. WHITMAN of the gravity of the situation, a thoroughly wretched WILLIE CONKLIN who is being made to repair COALHOUSE'S car, and FATHER. We see a vigil of HARLEM WOMEN with candles.)

Mr. Walker. This is This is District Attorney Charles S. Whitman. Do you hear me? I have Fire Chief Willie Conklin with me. He is restoring your car. Will you come out, sir?

(The focus now goes to WASHINGTON, as the people on the street move away. It should seem as if he has been admitted to the library, and is now addressing COALHOUSE directly.)

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON For the sum of my life I have lived in hope We might all be Christian brothers. I have worked to persuade Every white-skinned man That he need not fear our race. What has your selfish recklessness Cost us, We who work so hard to still The white man's hate. Look what you've done.

VIGIL WOMEN Day of peace... Day of pride... Justice! Justice!

MEN, FATHER Hours passing by and Not a sign from Coalhouse! Hours passing by, The situation hopeless! Hours passing by... Hours passing by...

WOMEN Hours passing by and Not a sign from Coalhouse! Hours passing by, The situation hopeless! Hours passing by...

Is this the legacy you would bestow upon him? Are these the shoulders you would have him stand upon? Let him be the son of a man who had the courage to tell the truth in a court of law. Make your case, and if the verdict is death, go to it proudly, knowing that you have been heard. The truth is all. If you do this, you will have the thanks and respect of every decent man of colour and of all those children of our race whose way is hard and whose journey is long.

Then they will see me come out with my hands raised, and no further harm will come to any man from Coalhouse Walker, Jr.

(WASHINGTON and COALHOUSE shake hands. WASHINGTON exits. The FOLLOWERS and YOUNGER BROTHER surround COALHOUSE in furious agitation.)

(COALHOUSE sends the MEN out, with YOUNGER BROTHER as the white hostage. "One white face looks just like another!" says COALHOUSE. FATHER remains inside. When they hear the MEN drive off in the Model T, COALHOUSE thanks FATHER for his kindness to SARAH and the baby. He goes to the doors, raises his hands and steps out into the glare of lights. There is a sharp burst of gunfire and a blackout.)

The era of Ragtime had run out, as if history were no more than a tune on a player piano. But we did not know that then.

(He turns the projector as a slow parade begins - a ghostly, silhouetted march of time: people of the past, people of the future.)

After Coalhouse Walker's death, Younger Brother drove south to Mexico, where he joined the great peasant revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata.

Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute became, in time, the capital of black America. When he died, flags were flown at half-mast. President and Mrs. Wilson attended his funeral.

Harry Houdini was hanging upside down high over Times Square when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo.

A little boy's words suddenly rang clear to the great illusionist. It was the one genuine mystical experience of his life. But it was too late. The world was already at war.

When the Lusitania was torpedoed by a U-boat off the Southwest coast of Ireland, twelve hundred men, women and children lost their lives, and among them, Father.