Ragtime movie - Prologue: Ragtime lyrics

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<br>

[THE LITTLE BOY]<br>

In 1902 Father built a house at the crest of the Brodview<br>

Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York, and it seemed for<br>

some years thereafter that all the family's days would be <br>

warm and fair.<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]<br>

The skies were blue and hazy,<br>

Rarely a storm. Barely a chill<br>

<br>

[WOMEN]<br>

La la la la...<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]<br>

The afternoons were lazy,<br>

Everyone warm. Everything still.<br>

<br>

[MEN]<br>

La la la la...<br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

And there was distant music,<br>

Simple and somehow sublime,<br>

Giving the nation<br>

A new syncopation-<br>

The people called it Ragtime!<br>

<br>

[FATHER]<br>

Father was well-off. Very well-off. his considerable<br>

income was derived from the manufacture and sale of <br>

fireworks and other accoutrements of patriotism. Father<br>

was also something of an amateur explorer.<br>

<br>

[MOTHER]<br>

The house on the hill in New Rochelle was Mother's <br>

domain. She took pleasure in making it comfortable<br>

for the men of her family and often told herself how<br>

fortunate she was to be so protected and provided for <br>

by her husband.<br>

<br>

[YOUNGER BROTHER]<br>

Mother's Younger Brother worked at Father's fireworks <br>

factory. He was a genius at explosives. But he was also <br>

a young man in search of something to believe in. his<br>

sisterwondered when he would find it.<br>

<br>

[GRANDFATHER]<br>

Grandfather had been a professor of Greek and Latin. Now<br>

retired and living with his daughter and her family, he<br>

was thoroughly irritated by everything.<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]<br>

The days were gently tinted<br>

Lavender pink, lemon and lime.<br>

<br>

[MOTHER]<br>

Ladies with parasols<br>

<br>

[YOUNGER BROTHER]<br>

Fellows with tennis balls<br>

<br>

[FATHER]<br>

There were gazebos, and...<br>

The were no negroes.<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF HARLEM]<br>

And everything was Ragtime!<br>

Listen to the Ragtime!<br>

<br>

[COALHOUSE]<br>

In Harlem, men and women of color forgot their<br>

troubles and danced and reveled to the music of <br>

Coalhouse Walker, Jr. This was a music that was theirs<br>

and no one else's.<br>

<br>

[SARAH]<br>

One young woman thought Coalhouse played just for her,<br>

Her name was Sarah.<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF HARLEM]<br>

Ooooh...<br>

<br>

[BOOKER T. WASHINGTON]<br>

Booker T. Washington was the most famous Negro<br>

in the country. He counselled friendship between the <br>

races and spoke of the promise of the future. he had no<br>

patience for Negroes who lived less than exemplary lives.<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]<br>

Ladies with parasols,<br>

Fellows with tennis balls.<br>

There were no Negroes <br>

And there were no immigrants.<br>

<br>

[TATEH]<br>

In Latvia, a man dremed of a new life for his little girl.<br>

It would be a long journey, a treeible one.<br>

He ould not lose her as he had her mother. <br>

His name was Tateh. He never spoke of his wife.<br>

The Little Girl was all he had now.<br>

Together, they wouuld escape.<br>

<br>

[LITTLE BOY]<br>

Houdini! Look it's Houdini!<br>

<br>

[CROWD]<br>

Ooh...aah!<br>

Ooh...aah!<br>

<br>

[HOUDINI]<br>

Harry Houdini was one immigrant who made and art of <br>

escape. He was a headliner in the top Vaudeville circuits.<br>

<br>

[HOUDINI'S MOTHER]<br>

Ich bin die Mutter des grossen Houdinis!<br>

<br>

[HOUDINI]<br>

He mad his Mother proud. But for all his achievements, he<br>

knew he was only an illusionist. He wanted to believe<br>

there was more...<br>

<br>

Hello, sonny.<br>

<br>

[LITTLE BOY]<br>

Warn the Duke!<br>

<br>

[HOUDINI]<br>

What did you say?<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF NEW ROCHELLE]<br>

And there was distant music<br>

Changing the tune, changing the time,<br>

<br>

[PEOPLE OF HARLEM]<br>

Giving the nation <br>

A new syncopation:<br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

La, la, la.<br>

<br>

[MEN]<br>

La, la, la...<br>

<br>

[J.P. MORGAN]<br>

Certain men make a country great.<br>

<br>

[HENRY FORD]<br>

They can't help it.<br>

<br>

[MORGAN]<br>

At the very apex of the American Pyramid-<br>

<br>

[FORD]<br>

-That's the very tip-top!-<br>

<br>

[MORGAN]<br>

Like Pharoahs reincarnate, stood J.P. Morgan.<br>

<br>

[FORD]<br>

And Henry Ford.<br>

<br>

[MORGAN]<br>

All men are born equal.<br>

<br>

[FORD]<br>

But the cream rises to the top!<br>

<br>

[EMMA GOLDMAN]<br>

Let me at those sosn of bitches! These men are the <br>

demons who are sucking your very souls dry! I hate them!<br>

<br>

[MORGAN]<br>

Someone should arrest that woman!<br>

<br>

[EMMA GOLDMAN]<br>

The radical anarchist Emma Goldman fought against the<br>

ravages of American capitalism as she watched her fellow<br>

immigrants' hopes turn to despair on the Lower East Side.<br>

<br>

[EVELYN NESBIT]<br>

La la la<br>

La la la la<br>

Whee!<br>

<br>

[EMMA]<br>

But America was watching another drama.<br>

<br>

[EVELYN NESBIT]<br>

Evelyn Nesbit was the most beautiful woman in America,<br>

If she wore her hair in curls, every woman wore her hair<br>

in curls.<br>

<br>

[STANFORD WHITE]<br>

Her lover was the eminent architect, Stanford White,<br>

designer of the Pennsylvania Station on 33rd street.<br>

<br>

[HARRY K. THAW]<br>

Her husband, the eccentric millionaire, Harry K. Thaw,<br>

was a violent man.<br>

<br>

[EVELYN]<br>

After her husband shot her lover, Evelyn became the biggest<br>

attraction in Vaudeville since Tom Thumb.<br>

<br>

[NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN]<br>

La la la la la<br>

<br>

[MEN]<br>

Bang!<br>

<br>

[NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN]<br>

La la la<br>

<br>

[MEN]<br>

Bang!<br>

<br>

[NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN]<br>

La<br>

<br>

[MEN]<br>

Bang!<br>

<br>

[EMMA GOLDMAN]<br>

And although the newspapers called the shooting the<br>

Crime of the Century, Goldman knew it was only 1906...<br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

And there were ninety-four years to go!<br>

<br>

[EMMA]<br>

Whee!<br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

And there was music playing,<br>

Catching a nation in its prime...<br>

Beggar and millionaire<br>

Everyone, everywhere<br>

Moving to the Ragtime!<br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

And there was distant music<br>

Skipping a beat, singing a dream.<br>

<br>

[WOMEN]<br>

La la la la <br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

A strange, insistent music<br>

Putting out heat,<br>

Picking up steam.<br>

<br>

[MEN]<br>

La la la la <br>

<br>

[ALL]<br>

The sound of distant thunder<br>

Suddenly starting to climb...<br>

<br>

It was the music<br>

Of something beginning,<br>

An era exploding,<br>

A century spinning<br>

In riches and rags,<br>

And in rhythm and rhyme.<br>

The people called it Ragtime...<br>

Ragtime!<br>

Ragtime!<br>

Ragitme!<br>

<br>