Ragtime

“I read music so good, white folks think I’m faking it,” 

    Coalhouse Walker, Jr., from E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime”

E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime” (1975) is one of my favorite novels.  Set in New York during the early twentieth century and an indictment of the prevailing racism of that time, it mixes fictional characters with true-to-life portraits of such historical figures as Evelyn Nesbitt, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan, and Emma Goldman.  Urban reformer Jacob Riis even gets a mention.  I read it when it first came out and reread it more recently.  In the 1981 film Jimmy Cagney (in his final screen role) played NYC Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo, while novelist Norman Mailer portrayed architect Stanford White, Evelyn Nesbitt’s lover killed in real life by jealous husband Harry K. Thaw.

Jonathyne Briggs asked me to observe him teaching so I could write a critique to include with his Founders Day Award application.  I attended his seminar on the History of Popular Music.  The class was on Ragtime and Tin Pan Alley.  Jon was quite adept at engaging the students, using a Socratic approach and guiding the discussion on the reading assignments toward salient points he wished to make.  From the beginning it was clear that the students respected him and that he enjoyed an easy rapport with them.  He connected the material with subject matter covered earlier in the semester and, for example, compared and contrasted Ragtime with music popular in minstrel show and cakewalk rhythms.  He was careful to place the two genres in historical context – in the case of Ragtime, the racist, segregated South.  In fact, in the years after Reconstruction many talented piano players could find paying gigs only in brothels.  There was mention of Storyville, the New Orleans tenderloin district that gave birth to jazz, next week’s topic.  Regarding Tin Pan Alley, primarily a New York City phenomenon, the music form grew out of the commercial possibilities (i.e., sheet music, phonograph recordings) available during the early years of the twentieth century and was both cosmopolitan and nostalgic in the mood and lyrics.  The class discussed musicians Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin and heard selections from Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”  Joplin performed in Chicago clubs during the 1893 World’s Fair, and after ragtime music had become somewhat of a craze, moved to New York City in 1907 but never repeated the success of “Maple Leaf Rag.”  His opera “Treemonisha” flopped, and his health deteriorated due to the effects of syphilis.  At the time of his death at age 49 he was suffering from dementia.  Irving Berlin, on the other hand, producer of such classics as “White Christmas” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” lived to be 101 and remained artistically productive until well up in years.

Nephew Bob Lane posted a Burger Lounge hamburger shaped like a heart, for Vallentine’s Day, I guess.  He enjoyed the Grammy performances by Mumford and Sons and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, who participated in the tribute to Levon Helm on the song “The Weight.” Addison and Crosby gave shout-outs.  I told them I’d be in California in six weeks.

Obama’s State of the Union address was quite moving, especially near the end.  After stating that in the two months since Newton, a thousand Americans have died from bullets from guns, he introduced Hadiya Pendleton’s parents and others whose loved ones had been killed, then declared that they deserve to have Congress vote on gun control.  Even Republicans stood and applauded when he declared: “Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.  The families of Newtown deserve a vote.  The families of Oak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence deserve a simple vote.”  Obama also called for a nine-dollar-an-hour minimum wage and the closing of tax loopholes.

Exactly 100 years ago, Janet Bayer reminded me, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones was arrested in West Virginia protesting working conditions in the coal mines.  Initially sentenced to 20 years for conspiring to commit murder, she served 85 days.  After a United States Senator called her “the grandmother of all agitators, she replied that she hoped to live long enough to be their great-grandmother. She also said, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”

There a sexting scandal at Munster High School A dozen guys got three-day suspensions for sharing on cell phones nude photos of two girls, one 15 and the other 16, who were not punished.  They sent them last summer to their boyfriends, who shared them with others.  Police are investigating the evidence with keen interest, but school administrators regard what happened as a huge mistake, not a crime.  Because school policy requires that cell phones be turned off during school hours, administrators justified examining the contents of those confiscated.

Looking through a batch of past Ayers Realtors “Newsletters” that Cheryl brought me for the Archives, I came across a column by Judy where she asked her Croatian-born hairstylist Violet that she wanted to try something different and showed her a picture from a magazine.  She recalled looking like a country singer and called Gene to warn him not to say anything at dinner about her hair.”  That night,” she wrote, “we talked about his day, my day, and anything but my hair.  While we were cleaning up in the kitchen, Gene said to me in a serious tone, ‘You’d better go now.  Judy is sure to be home soon, and she won’t like to find me with a strange woman.’”

Michael Jordan turned 50.  I still recall highlights of his career vividly, including the first and final (sixth) NBA titles with the Bulls.  Only Mohammad Ali is as well-known worldwide.  Because of him, such stars of the 1990s as Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone never won a championship ring.  IU’s Victor Oladipo has some “Jordanesque” moves and Lebron James has been compared to Michael talent-wise, but he was one of a kind in terms as a competitor.

Toni couldn’t believe I was excused from jury duty but that she was not.  On the form I mentioned needing frequent bathroom breaks due to my blood pressure medicine, while she cited breathing problems from COPD.  Perhaps my being over 70 had something to do with it.

At bowling I mentioned sitting in on Jonathyne’s class, and the subject of big bands came up.   Mel Nelson mentioned that his parents me either at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom or the Trianon, and Dick Maloney added that he and his wife used to enjoy ballroom dancing at Midway Gardens on Chicago’s South Side. Midway Ballroom in Cedar Lake and Madura’s Danceland in Hammond attracted famous Big Bands, and Gary had several large ballrooms, as well, including the Miramar, one of the few socially integrated places in the city during the 1940s. Among the entertainers who performed there were Duke Ellington and Lucky Millinder (below with sister Rosetta Tharpe).