This is a paper I wrote over the course of last year for my IB requirements. I hope you enjoy. It was very extense and it is being mailed in October to some far off place, according to some teachers...Here you go...oh, and by the way, It's long b/c it had to be 1400 words..not counting the abstract...so favorite place it and come read it sparingly if you feel the need to...
ABSTRACT
ÒAs seen through RENT and Ragtime, how is American Social History portrayed through American Musical Theatre?Ó
As I can conclude from the following paper, many things can be observed from the theatrical world, which can contribute to society. Examined are two Broadway award-winning musicals, Ragtime and RENT, which helps the reader to understand the differences and similarities throughout their respective times. Ragtime analyzes the turn of the century, while RENT is more recent and analyzes the 1990Õ2. Both musicals are set in America, more specifically, New York City.
This essay focuses on the lives of the fictional and non-fictional characters in each of these shows. These examples have contributed to the issues and struggles that were confronted in the past and present. The times were different, as was society in general. For a message to be presented in such a fashion, these musicals provide an outline for theatre and society to follow in the future.
IB EXTENDED ESSAY
ÒAs seen through RENT and Ragtime, how is American Social History portrayed through American Musical Theatre?Ó
Introduction
Musical theatre represents not only an artistic part of society, but also a time of history. It is a universe in its own, that is composed of many things including acting, design, development and creation of story, direction/production. Musical theatre is geographically popular in places such as New York, in North America. New York also provides the setting and place for many plays and musicals.
Social history plays a big part in the development of musical theatre. Sometimes social history reflects society as a whole, but can also reflect the time of that particular society. Social history demonstrates what the people of its time actually went through and experienced. It shows not only the governmental element of history, but other areas such as science, literature, art, and other contributors. Overall, it reflects the direct link of society to the events of their respective era.
Ragtime
Ragtime begins with the opening numberÓ where each of the three main groups in New York City (the Negroes, the WASPs, and the immigrants) sing about the music of their era, ragtime. The musical proceeds when Mother and Little Boy sees Father off for the North Pole with Admiral Peary aboard the SS Roosevelt. On the way out of the harbor, Father sees a rag ship of immigrants and wonders what each of them are destined for in America. Meanwhile, back in a court room of Manhattan, Evelyn Nesbit testifies for her husband, Harry K. Thaw, who supposedly murdered EvelynÕs ex-lover, Stanford White. Harry is found not guilty and legally insane.
In New Rochelle, where FatherÕs family resides, Mother is gardening and finds a small Negro child buried in her garden. Mother gets the police and they return with Sarah, the babyÕs mother. Unless Sarah and the baby are not taken in by a family, the police must separate each and put Sarah in jail, and the baby in a foster home. Generously, Mother allows Sarah and the baby to stay in her attic.
At the Tempo Club in Harlem, people Òdance in tune to the revel of Mr. Coalhouse Walker Jr.Ó He appears to be quite sad since his lover, Sarah, suddenly ran out on him. Coalhouse decides to build himself a new life by buying a brand new Ford Model-T car to find Sarah in New Rochelle. Coalhouse arrives at the house in New Rochelle, but he is rejected by Mother, stating that Sarah does not wish to see him. Every Sunday, until Sarah decides to see him, Coalhouse returns to the house, week after week. Suddenly, when Sarah finally hears Coalhouse playing on MotherÕs piano, she recognizes his romantic longing, and comes down to see him. While this is going on, Father returns from the North Pole, and is almost astounded to see a Negro family sitting in his parlor. Coalhouse and Sarah, with baby, take a ride and plan their future in the new century.
Emma Goldman makes her famous Union Square speech about her findings in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where Tateh (the immigrant) and his daughter influence her. MotherÕs Younger Brother was on his way home from FatherÕs fireworks factory, when he needed to get warm from the wintry weather. He goes into the hall where Goldman is having the rally. Finally, after some time, Younger Brother has something to truly believe in.
Driving home after their afternoon of leisure, Coalhouse and Sarah are stopped by the Emerald Isle Firehouse gang, and an exchange of derogatory terms occurs. Coalhouse sends Sarah off to safety and seeks the help of a policeman who can stop the abuse. When Coalhouse returns, he sees that his Model-T is destroyed and a pile of human excrement is in the backseat. Coalhouse then vows not to marry Sarah, until the car is restored to its previous condition. Upset and hopelessly in love, Sarah decides to take things into her own hands, since she is so heartbroken, by going to the Vice Presidential campaign and talking to the candidate, hoping that he can help her and Coalhouse. However, with the recent assassination of President McKinley, security is tight, so when Sarah tries to make her way closer to the platform, she is killed in protection of the speaker.
Mourning her death, the WASP family, Coalhouse, and all of Harlem grieves in a long procession that begins in Harlem, and ends up being publicized across the region.To get their mind off of the funeral, Father takes Little Boy to a baseball game, where they find that the field and stands are filled with rowdy immigrants. Coalhouse appears and again requests that Willie Conklin, the leader of the firehouse gang, be handed over to him for revenge of SarahÕs death, and that the car be restored.
Until his demands are met, Coalhouse and his supporters will kill fireman and destroy firehouses. Father hears of this, and it spreads to the whole family in New Rochelle. Father is totally outraged, but Younger Brother sympathizes with Coalhouse, and goes off to join Coalhouse in his Òwar against the firehouses.Ó When Younger Brother faces Coalhouse at the revolutionary headquarters, he is speechless. Quick to his rescue, Emma Goldman appears like a vision to him to ease his true feelings about the whole situation.
The house in new Rochelle is soon swarmed with reporters trying to get a glimpse of CoalhouseÕs baby, and get inside information from the family. Father gets so fed up, that they take a long vacation in Atlantic City, where they can forget all the things that have happened. While on the seashore, Mother meets a movie director, Baron Ashkenazy, who is making a movie with Evelyn Nesbit, Harry Houdini, and a ragtime band. Soon after, the Baron reveals to mother that he is no Baron at all, but a Jewish immigrant from Latvia who made it big in the USA, with his daughter.
Unexpectedly, Mother is greeted by Father with the news that Coalhouse and his gang have taken over the Morgan Library, and how they are threatening to blow it up if CoalhouseÕs demands are not met. Father leaves to help the police with the negotiation process and arrives to the library in a rainy scene. Willie Conklin, under the supervision of the District Attorney, repairs the Model-T, but when it is finished, Coalhouse is still not satisfied. Coalhouse wants to deal with Willie Conklin himself.
Booker T. Washington enters the library to speak with Coalhouse, which is their last hope. Booker T. assures that if Coalhouse gives himself up, no more harm will come to them, or the gang of Coalhouse. So, all of the gang securely departs from the library, including Younger Brother, in the newly restored Model-T. Once his men are safe, Coalhouse exits the library door and is shot to death.
The musical concludes with an epilogue: CoalhouseÕs son, Coalhouse Walker, III becomes part of MotherÕs family. Mother and Tateh get married and take the Little Girl, the Little Boy and little Coalhouse to California. Father dies in the Luisitania disaster. Younger Brother escapes to Mexico with the band of Emiliano Zapata. All of the characters return onstage, and they sing about the future of equity of society.
Characters, both fictional and not, played a big part in the continuation of Ragtime. The course of the play mingles fictional characters-a poor Jewish immigrant, a black musician, and a WASP family from New Rochelle- with real life people from the past (Reidel 1). Such true life characters include Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Booker T. Washington, Stanford White, Harry K. Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, and Emma Goldman. These were not only American citizens, but philanthropists during the Depression, immigrants, and entertainment gurus.
Henry Ford fathered the automobile industry in America and was obviously brilliant, eccentric, and worth billions. Ford became and apprentice because he hated farm work, near his original home. On weekends, he built a car in machine shop behind house. Soon, even though cars were somewhat luxurious, he saw the need for a cheaper one. Thus was born the Model-T, sturdy, reliable, and cheap. Ford popularized the idea of an assembly line, gave many immigrants opportunity to work and earn money in the Òland of dreams.Ó However, there was a wrath of intellectuals blamed him for turning his workers into nothing more than cogs in the wheels of his machine. In the end of his career, Ford produced 15 million Model-Ts (Reidel 1).
J.P. Morgan was a financier who controlled railroads, steel companies, and coal mines. His greatest accomplishment is perhaps creating the Wall Street investment bank. During the panic of 1907, single-handedly, he prevented a nation- wide depression by bailing out NYC and many of countryÕs largest banks (Reidel 1). Some Americans saw him as an embodiment of greed, but he insulted that trait by creating the Morgan Library in New York City, and tried to make up wrongs by becoming one of the USAÕs great philanthropists.
Booker T. Washington was the nationÕs first black respected leader, who thought that activism was very calm, but not violent. This made him respected among WASPs and blacks. Washington often spoke of Òdignity of workÓ and the Òvirtues of cleanliness.Ó He instructed former slaves of the importance of land ownership, and created Tuskegee Institute, where African Americans could be trained for domestics (Washington 1). His main philosophy of Òagitation of questions of social equality the extremist folly,Ó was also popularized across the United States.
Stanford White was known as an architect and playboy, who designed Pennsylvania Station in New York City. He was murdered by NesbitÕs husband, Harry K.Thaw, and was dubbed the Òcrime of the century.Ó This trial and crime offered tabloid New Yorkers a peek at the sordid events among the cityÕs elite.
Harry K. Thaw, another one of NesbitÕs lovers, was the son of a railroad magnate, also known as one of BroadwayÕs famous playboys (Reidel 2). He shot NesbitÕs supposed lover, White, and supposedly Òsaved her lifeÓ because he was Òmore gentle than White.Ó Instead of placing him in prison, he was certifiably insane by court system, which was due to the fact that he spent much of his youth inside and out of mental institutions.
Evelyn Nesbit was a model for artists and photographers, who moved to New York City with her mother to join Floradora Theater. There, in her new found life or happiness and bliss, she met two suitors: Stanford White and Harry K. Thaw. Graciela Daniels, the choreographer, said that dance was really a different language to describe a story, and Evelyn was the first real star of the time, and that was seen in the dancing role of the actress portraying Nesbit (Flaherty 4).
Emma Goldman emigrated to the USA from Russia in 1885 and began an anarchical effort when she met Alexander Berkman in a factory in Rochester, New York. She lectured on birth control, womenÕs rights, and labor issues. Goldman published Mother Earth, her promotion of womenÕs political and sexual freedom (Keenan 73). In a quote to unhappy, jobless workers in 1893, she states, ÒDemand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If the deny you both, take the bread. It is your sacred right!Ó (Keenan 73).
E.L. Doctorow (Edgar Lawrence) was born in NYC, January 6,1931 (Doctorow 1), and is well known for blending fiction with history. He was a favorite author who reinvented history in a unique way that people were rather intrigued. It was a not a novel about ragtime, but a novel in the ragtime era. Real influence was not literary, but musical aspects of the time.
ÒThe novel clearly inspired by the ragtime music and by the queer light it throws on the time in which it flourished, and suffered with its mood and its rhythmsÓ (Brooks 1). This device is perfectly within the characters for well-made ragtime, which is characterized by the serial introduction of entirely new themes. Ragtime was not social history disguised as a novel, rather a novel as social history, an imaginative flight based on the facts of the past but released rather than confined.
The novel was first made into a movie, (1981-film) which blended fact, fiction, and Òfictitious factsÓ in pre-World War I America. The belief that a form of light, unique, and unrecapturable pervades a certain place in a certain time, and no other, is a characteristic of Ragtime (Brooks 3). Readers with no interest in the art of the novel will be able to enjoy Ragtime for social observations.
Ragtime was brought to Broadway by Livent, a Canadian based musical theatre production company in the 1997-98 season. Lynn Ahrens, the lyricist, and Stephen Flaherty, the composer, collaborated on the musical themes and lyrics for Ragtime. The musical was greeted with widespread critical acclaim at the world premiere in Toronto, and brought to Los Angeles in spring of 1997. Because of the great success, Tony Awards for best score book, best featured actress in a musical (Audra McDonald), and orchestration, were presented at the Tony Awards Gala in June 1998 (Reidel 1).
RENT
RENT begins when Mark, a young filmmaker, sets up his camera. His roommate Roger, a songwriter and ex-junkie, struggles to pick out a song on his electric guitar. Mark turns the camera on Roger, taunting him about his songwriter's block. The phone rings: Collins, an old friend, is at a pay phone downstairs. Mark picks up, but the call is cut short-Collins is being mugged. The phone rings once more. Again Mark and Roger pick up, hoping it is Collins, only to find Benny, their wealthy former-roommate-turned landlord, on the line instead, demanding the rent. As if things couldn't get worse, the electrical power blows. Loudly, Mark and Roger rage. They burn the past to keep warm, using RogerÕs rock and roll posters and MarkÕs screenplays for fuel.
Outside, a badly beaten Collins is discovered by Angel, a street musician, who offers bandages, comfort, and an invitation for a night on the town. Their instant attraction becomes a bond with the realization that both are HIV-Positive. Roger is interrupted in his songwriting by a beautiful stranger from downstairs, Mimi. Mimi needs a match, her electricity is out. She and Roger are instantly drawn to each other, but Roger resists. Mimi, he recognizes, is a junkie from a dance club.
At last, Mark returns with Collins, who brings provisions and better-yet-funds, in the person of Angel, now decked out in glorious drag. Angel explains how he has earned a fast $1,000 which he is eager to share with them. Benny barges in with a deal: If Mark and Roger will stop Maureen's performance tonight protesting the clearing of a tent city from Benny's adjacent vacant lot, Benny will forgive Mark and Roger's back-rent. Once Benny is gone, Mark, Angel and Collins head out for the evening, leaving Roger alone again.
In the lot, Mark gathers his courage to meet the formidable Joanne, Maureen's new lover, who has also usurped Mark's stage manager duties. When Joanne reluctantly accepts Mark's technical assistance, the two quickly find common ground in their shared experiences of the self-centered, unfaithful albeit irresistible Maureen. Angel and Collins attend an AIDS support meeting; Mark arrives to document it on film. The group affirms its determination to live without fear-"no day but today."
Meanwhile, in her apartment, Mimi is dressing to kill. Turning up again on Roger's doorstep, she implores him to take her out. Roger is tempted, but his fear ultimately compels him to push Mimi away. Simultaneously, a young support group member quietly asks, "Will I lose my dignity..Will someone care?" His questions are echoed by each member of the community, including Roger, who decides finally to leave his loft in search of answers. Mark goes to check on Roger, leaving Angel and Collins alone to declare their newfound love.
In St. Mark's Place, the homeless, sidewalk vendors, junkies, drug dealers, and cops comprise a human mosaic. Angel buys Collins an overcoat, Mark meets up with Roger, and Mimi hunts for a fix from the drug dealer. Roger spots her, apologizes for his behavior in the loft, and invites her to dinner. She accepts.
Maureen arrives and presents her performance piece, a satirical protest that calls for a communal "leap of faith" against Benny's commercial development. After MaureenÕs performance, everyone meets at the Life Cafe, where they hear a gloating Benny declare that Bohemia is dead. Mark and his fellow Bohemians joyously reject Benny's pronouncement. Benny exits in anger, stopping only long enough to hound Mimi, who is, it would seem, a former lover. As her beeper sounds, Mimi pauses to take her AZT. Roger discovers that his secret and his illness are Mimi's also. Exhilarated and frightened, they resolve to assume the risk of romantic involvement as well. Joanne also informs everyone that a riot has broken out on Avenue A, where MaureenÕs performance was. Benny has padlocked Mark and Roger's building and called the police. The bohemians continue to celebrate. The riot continues to rise. Roger and Mimi share a small, lovely kiss.
In the wake of the riot, the community pauses to ask, "How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?" The unqualified answer-"measure in love." New Year's Eve. Mark films a "breaking back into the building party." Once inside, Mark discovers a phone machine message left for him with a job offer from a tabloid television show hostess named Alexi Darling. Benny crashes the party to ostentatiously apologize, offering the boys new keys to their old loft. Suspecting Benny's motives, Roger balks. Furious, Benny implies that Mimi helped change his mind by sleeping with him. Mimi angrily denies this, but the damage is done; Roger is bitterly jealous. Mimi is cornered outside by her dealer with a little something to assure her "Happy New Year."
Valentine's Day. Roger is living with Mimi, but remains terribly jealous, often threatening to leave. Angel and Collins survive together wherever they can. Mark still lives behind his camera. At their apartment, a warring Joanne and Maureen issue each other an ultimatum.
Spring. Roger walks out on Mimi, accusing her of being unfaithful with Benny. Alone, Mimi mourns the impending loss of love, while Collins nurses the increasingly ill Angel. The end of spring brings reconciliation for Roger and Mimi, as well as Maureen and Joanne, but all is tentative at best. Summer's end, and Alexi is still calling, enticing Mark with big money. Much lovemaking is witnessed, framed by attendant frustrations in the age of safe sex.
By the fall, Roger, Mimi, Joanne and Maureen are all on the outs again. Collins and Angel's separation, however, is profound and final. Angel has died. At Angel's memorial each friend offers a loving tribute. Clutching the overcoat Angel gave him at Christmas, Collins reaffirms his undying love. Outside the church, Mark phones Alexi and accepts her job offer, despondent at how drastically life has changed since that Christmas night just one year before. As the mourners exit the church, Mimi learns that Roger is leaving town for good.
A nasty scene ensues, with arguments erupting between all the estranged lovers. Collins, in sorrow, begs them all to stop. Maureen and Joanne are moved to try once again to reconcile. Mimi and Benny leave together. Mark tries to convince Roger to stay in New York and confront his pain, but Roger lashes out, accusing Mark of also remaining detached, hiding behind his camera. Mark wonders whether Roger is simply afraid to watch Mimi die.
Roger leaves for Santa Fe and Mimi begs Mark for help, Benny turns up and offers to pay for Mimi's drug rehabilitation but she refuses and instead runs away. When Benny covers the cost of Angel's funeral, he and Collins warm to each other and head off to get drunk as Mark prepares for his meeting with Alexi. Mark questions the choice he is about to make and the world in which he lives. His thoughts are echoed by Roger on his way to Santa Fe. They both remember the beauty of last Christmas Eve, when they felt connected, and their friends were a family. Roger begins to discover his song. Mark turns down the TV tabloid job to finish his film. Roger, Mark, Mimi and Joanne's parents all wonder where their children are as the holidays approach.
Another Christmas Eve. Mark has pieced together a rough cut of his film, which he hopes to screen tonight. Roger has moved back into the loft and has finished his song. No one has been able to find Mimi. The power blows again but the night is brightened by the arrival of Collins. Then, Maureen and Joanne appear on the sidewalk below carrying a desperately ill Mimi. Laid out in the loft, Mimi finally manages to tell Roger that she loves him.
Begging her not to leave him, Roger sings his "one song" for her. "I have always loved you," Roger whispers, then cries out her name as Mimi slips away. Moments later, however, she returns, with stories of a warm white light and Angel steering her back to life. Celebrating the wonder of life's terrible uncertainty, the community reaffirms love as the strongest force we know, acknowledging there is always, "No day but today."
These characters are different from those from Ragtime, in that they are fictional characters, who were probably based on the friends and family of the playwright, Jonathan Larson. Mark, a young filmaker, is a self styled experimental ÒauteurÓ at war with his own defensive detachment. He tends to be pushing a bit hard for work, but is productionÕs energetic engine. Roger, a heterosexual HIV positive songwriter, has an enhanced, effortless-seeming radiance that should quickly turn him into a matinee idol for a new generation (Brantley 1). Mimi, displays a more shadowy eroticism, transfixes blend of street swagger and mortal fragility. She is HIV positive junkie and a dancer at a night club in New York City.
Angel, obviosuly an angelic transvestite, was a HIV positive homosexual, who made her living drumming on street. Collins, a renegade philosopher, teaches at NYU, but Òhis students rather watch TVÓ (Brantley 2). He is a HIV positive homosexual. Joanne is a lesbian lawyer, emerges as fully defined that the audience has known forever. She is also MaureenÕs stage manager. Maureen, a performance artist, welcomes satiric shadings to her artistic affections. Maureen also had a relationship with Mark prior to Joanne.
The story of RENTÕs creation is the story of Jonathan LarsonÕs singular vision and drive (larson 18). Larson saw the need to present the lack of government support for the arts. During development, he was attacked stereotypes by writing possible alliterations into work (Larson 31). Larson saw numbers of homeless people were shooting up, and people were dying all around, and this provided for the mood of RENT.
RENT asks, Òhow did I get here,Ó (Brantley 1) and that speaks for all of the creation and artistic team. LarsonÕs clever but deeply felt words and score and the cast and the musicians who interpret them make the libretto come to life. The overall mission was that Larson and his team wanted to make good theatre melting popular culture and popular music with a theatrical sensibility (Larson 28).
What makes RENT so wonderful is, not its hipness quotient, but its extraordinary spirit of hopeful defiance and humanity. It was conceived as the showÕs surrogate family of fringe artists, drag queens, and HIV infected drug users with such rich affection and compassion that is impossible not to care about them (Branley 2). The cast still wanders casually into place after the house lights go down to remind us that these are real, funky people up there.
It is a charming poignant rock opera with a sentimental triumph (Brantley 1). ÒItÕs a play about life, not about death.Ó quoted by Jonathan Larson. The musical swept the 1996 Tony awards, winning Òbest musicalÓ as well as others.
The cast and outline of RENT deal with surviving and trying to do the best that they can do (Larson 31). Real people donÕt deal with polemics, they deal with finding themselves and falling in love. The ÒAIDS victimÓ stereotyped and point out that people with AIDS can live full lives, it affects everyone, not just drug abusers and gay men. In our desensitized culture, the ones grappling with life and death issues often more fully than members of the so-called Òmainstream.Ó
Homosexuality showed that just as society has worked toward changing discriminatory racial attitudes and conduct, the same must be done by each individual to turn around the societyÕs homophobic attitudes (Dudley 66). Only then will America be able to realize the right to pursue happiness, and feel so closeted. Gay activism is viewed as a part of broad cultural reevaluation of traditional male and female roles that has been fostered by the womenÕs movement and by human potential and self help groups, which stress individual self realization rather than conformity to socially imposed patterns (Gay activism 1). Feminism is one model for empowering the individual and the harnessing that collective energy for change. Feminism gives new dialogue, freshness, and drive (Wekesser 147).
Conclusion
In conclusion, both musicals contributed quite a lot to the theatre world and the society surrounding the artistic world. They draw on events from the past to examine concerns of the present. It explores racism, immigration, social phobias, feminism, the rise of labor unions, the frequent unemployment, and societyÕs burdens.
The issues that were prevalent, for example, the poverty of both the immigrants, and the Bohemians, were not necessarily surrounding a choice. The immigrants arrived in America due to a freedom they seeked, but the sought out America as a land of promises and prosperity. On the other hand, the Bohemians lived their life as each day passed, mainly because of their likeliness for the artistic lifestyle.
Most importantly, Ragtime and RENT share many similarities. They both demonstrate lives intertwined in New York City, one of AmericaÕs most prominent settings. The issues discussed in each of the respective plays reflect the time, people and society, and have a distinction for the stage. Sometimes, it is easier for people to understand what a history reflects, if it presented in real time, or live theatre. These two shows have given so much to theatre within the past four years, and hopefully, more people will be able to understand the times, people and prospective better.
Appendix 1
Ragtime Events and Issues
A. 1895- The Lumiere Brothers create the first movie camera
B. 1899- Scott JoplinÕs ÒMaple Leaf RagÓ is published, sparking an international craze for ragtimeÕs syncopated rhythms
C. 1901- President William McKinley is assassinated in Buffalo, NY. Teddy Roosevelt becomes President
D. 1903- Edward PorterÕs The Great Train Robbery ushers in the age of motion pictures
E. 1903- Orville and Wilbur Wright achieve the first powered, manned flight near Kitty Hawk, NC
F. 1904- The first section of the NY subway system opens, running from the Brooklyn Bridge to 145th Street
G. 1904- George Cohan introduces ÒGive My Regards to BroadwayÓ in the smash-hit musical Little Johnny Jones.
H. 1904- The National Child Labor Committee is formed
I. 1904- Teddy Roosevelt is reelected by a landslide
J. 1905- Albert Einstein publishes his ÒSpecial Theory of RelativityÓ and ushers in the nuclear age with the climactic formula of his law of mass-energy equivalence, E=mc2
K. 1906- In the rooftop restaurant atop Madison Square Garden, architect Stanford White is hot and murdered point blank by Harry Thaw, Evelyn NesbitÕs husband
L. 1907- European immigrants reaches its peak as 1.2 million arrive each day at NY HarborÕs Ellis Island
M. 1907- Construction of ManhattanÕs Pierpont Morgan Library, home to financier J.P. MorganÕs vast collection of rare books, historic objects and fine paintings is completed
N. 1908- Henry Ford introduces his Model-T, the first automobile built on an assembly line. Over the next two decades, 15 million are sold worldwide
O. 1909- Admiral Peary reaches the North Pole
P. 1909- Master illusionist Harry Houdini executes the greatest escape of his life after being handcuffed, nailed inside a wooden box, and then dropped into NYCÕs East River
Q. 1910- Construction of Penn Station is completed
R. 1911- Irving BerlinÕs ÒAlexanderÕs Ragtime BandÓ is introduced, selling more than a million copies of sheet music. He is called the king of ragtime
S. 1911- Norweigen explorer Roald Admundsen reaches the South Pole
T. 1912- The pride of J.P. MorganÕs International Merchant marine, a new luxury liner named Titanic, departs Southampton on her maiden voyage
U. 1912- In the mill town of Lawrence, Massachusetts, widespread violence erupts as thousands of workers go on strike
V. 1912- Woodrow Wilson is elected as the 28th President of the United States
W. 1914- The Panama Canal opens
X. 1914- On June 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand is shot and killed in Sarejevo. Dubbed Òthe shot heard Ôround the world,Ó the assassination triggers the beginning of WWI.
Y. 1915- D.W. GriffithÕs landmark film The Birth of a Nation premieres in NYC
Z. The British passenger ship, the Lusitania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland
(reprinted from Ragtime Broadway Production ProgramWWI.
Y. 1915- D.W. GriffithÕs landmark film The Birth of a Nation premieres in NYC
Z. The British passenger ship, the Lusitania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland
(reprinted from Ragtime Broadway Production Program)
Works Cited
Bentley, Ben. ÒRENT review.Ó New York Times. 30 April 1996.
Brooks, John. ÒA novel in ragtime is magic.Ó Chicago Tribune. 6 July 1975.
ÒDoctorow.Ó GrolierÕs Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1997 ed.
Dudley, William. Homosexuality: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1993.
ÒGay activism.Ó GrolierÕs Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1997 ed.
Flaherty, Stephen. Ragtime. Orch. William David Brohn. Perf. Peter Friedman, Mark Jacoby, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Cond. David Loud. RCA Victor, 1998.
Keenan, Sheila. Encyclopedia of Women in the U.S.. New York: Scholastic Reference, 1996.
Larson, Jonathan. RENT. New York: Rob Weisbach Books, 1997.
Leinwald, Gerald. Patriotism in America. New York: Franklin Watts, 1997.
Reidel, Michael. ÒLegends in their own ÔRagtimeÕ sketches of new musicalÕs historical characters.Ó New York Daily News.
ÒWashington, Booker T.Ó GrolierÕs Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1997 ed.
Wekesser, Carol. Feminism: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1995.
Works Consulted
ÒAIDS.Ó GrolierÕs Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1997 ed.
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime. New York: Plume Books, 1974.
ÒHomosexuality.Ó GrolierÕs Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1197 ed.
Larson, Jonathan. RENT. Perf. Wilson Jermaine-Heredia, Jesse Martin, Adam Pascal, and Anthony Rapp. Cond. Tim Weil. Dreamworks Records, 1996.
Ragtime. By Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally. Dir. Frank Galati. Perf. Peter Friedman, Mark Jacoby, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, New York.
17 October 1998.
ÒRagtime.Ó GrolierÕs Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1997 ed.
RENT. By Jonathan Larson. Dir. Michael Greif. Perf. Wilson Jermaine-Heredia, Jesse Martin, Adam Pascal, and Anthony Rapp. Shaftesbury Theatre, London. 22 July 1998. Morris Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore. 25 October, 31 October 1998.