Scott Joplin

When writing Hollywood biopics, the unwritten rule seems to be, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." Truth, half-truth and outright legend have equal value. It is, for some reason, particularly true of TV-movie bios, and this 1977 TV-movie version of ragtime giant Scott Joplin's life story stands as a glaring example.

If you're looking for the *real* story of Joplin's life, you won't find it here. To be fair, even more recent biographers have trouble with most of Joplin's early life, and can only agree on this much: at some point in the 1880's, he's probably an itinerant musician performing throughout the Midwest with his brothers, as part of the Queen City Quartet; at some indeterminate time he attends high school, possibly in Sedalia; he might have been a visitor to the 1893 Columbian Exposition, where he supposedly heard ragtime for the first time. He learns composition at the George Smith College in Sedalia, and publishes a few minor pieces until he hits it big with his "Maple Leaf Rag."

The movie version takes a safe route and sidesteps questions about his early life in a series of still pictures: young Scott at the piano playing music with his family. Scott tearfully viewing his mother's casket. Arguing with his father over whether he should pursue music or a more practical life on the railroad gang (this most certainly never occurred). Scott running away from home, taken in by what appears to be the madam of a bordello (this never occurred either--most sources agree Joplin didn't leave home for good until his late teens).

When we see the adult Joplin (Billy Dee Williams) he's still playing piano in the bordello, but he has bigger plans. While working on his breakthrough composition "Maple Leaf Rag," he meets the young, musically brilliant Louis Chauvin ("That's My Mama"'s Clifton Davis). "What you writin' that stuff down for?" Chauvin asks. "My ears tell me everything." Whereby he proceeds to play, note for note, Joplin's piece. Joplin is impressed enough to hatch a scheme with Chauvin to introduce "Maple Leaf" at a local "cutting contest" and split the prize money that's sure to be theirs. (A side note: look for a cameo by the then-90ish Eubie Blake, a man whose talent exceeded even that of Joplin).

Joplin handily beats all comers, frustrating them by deftly changing keys in mid-song. He "concedes" after Chauvin plays a raggy rendition of the "Poet and Peasant" overture, then segues to (what else?) "Maple Leaf Rag"--and stuns the house, including a white music publisher named John Stark (well-played by Art Carney). The next day, Stark meets Joplin, agrees to publish "Maple Leaf"--and the rest, we are led to believe, is history.

Well...partly, anyway. The film completely ignores Joplin's early friendship and collaboration with Scott Hayden (with whom he wrote "Sunflower Slow Drag", "Kismet Rag", and "Scott Joplin's New Rag," among others). They and their respective wives even shared the same house at one point (Joplin had married Hayden's sister-in-law Belle) but Hayden's name is not even uttered in the film. The movie mentions Belle while curiously omitting any mention of her relationship to Hayden, but at least covers the loss of her only child (and subsequent abandonment of Joplin).

The film nonetheless gets a few details right. Joplin's obsessive quest to elevate ragtime to the status of high art is a recurring theme. His ambitious ragtime opera ("Treemonisha") gets the proper amount of attention in the film, as well as the opera's ultimate failure, which left Joplin a broken man.

Joplin and Stark became bitter enemies in real life after Stark's refusal to back "Treemonisha", but the film soft-pedals that somewhat, throwing in a reconciliation scene. (They never quite reconciled, in fact, though Stark did publish some of Joplin's later works).

The later scenes with a dying Chauvin, now barely able to play, are fairly close to what contemporaries of Joplin said had happened. That later meeting, in a dingy room in Chicago, led to Chauvin's only published work, "Heliotrope Bouquet." (We should have been allowed to hear more of the piece--it's beautiful, and only hints at the full extent of Chauvin's genius).

If you're a ragtime fan, however, these discrepancies will mean little. The tape, up to now very hard to find, is worth the price for the music alone. The cutting contest is perhaps the best moment of the film, as it seems to perfectly capture the spirit of the era. A particular favorite of mine is the musical "duel" between Joplin and Stark in Stark's music store, as they both play the "Maple Leaf Rag." I often found myself fast-forwarding to both these scenes again and again.

Ultimately, Joplin deserves to be remembered for the music, and in that sense, at least, this film is an invaluable asset.

I got this tape in an attempt to find something worthwhile to show my Jazz History class. Sadly, there's little here of factual "history" about Scott Joplin. The dialogue and direction were pretty poor, events jump from one to another with little explanation of what happens in between, and Billy Dee Williams' acting is terrible. I grant that he's pretty young here, but still...I'm going to chalk it up to a poor script, because I know he can do MUCH better than this stinker. Add to that the fact that he is awful at faking his piano playing, and there really isn't much that's believable about this film. As a history it's worthless, and as entertainment it's stilted & dry. If you like Joplin's music, buy a CD and a book biography, you'll get much more out of them.

This film was intended originally for television instead it was fitfully released theatrically. I recall it being screened in 1977 in a few local movie houses usually those that cater to a predominantly African-American audience and sometimes double-billed with another feature. As a cinephile I hate to say it but probably televsion would have been a better venue to tell this incredicle musician's story. At 96 minutes the film compresses too much. If it were a two part television event possibly Scott Joplin's story could be properly told. The weakness of the film is it rushes through too much of Joplin's story notably his musical accomplishments. It would have been nice to hear one of his pieces in it's entirety instead of just segments. It's strength is in the dramatization of his tragic personal life notably his dual battle with racism and syphillus. Billy Dee Williams does reasonably well in the title role but is more assured portraying the older Joplin than the younger. Terrific supporting work is turned in here by Clifton Davis as Louis Chauvin, Joplin's friend when they were employed as "professors" at St. Louis bordellos. Art Carney is incapable of shoddy work and his turn as John Stark, Joplin's publisher, is no exception. I recommend this film even though it suggests that it had the potential to be so much more.

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