Trivia

Originally a made-for-television movie, but was released to theaters.

The only other composers mentioned as worthy equals in the film are John Philip Sousa and Ferdinand 'Jelly Roll' Morton.

CAKEWALK is mentioned by a pianist during his duet during the competition. This has several definitions. The first is an absurdly or surprisingly easy task. The second is a dancing contest among African Americans in which a cake was awarded as a prize.

It is also a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize), also called "chalkline-walk," and the "walk-around." It was originally a processional partner dance performed with comical formality, and may have developed as a subtle mockery of the mannered dances of white slaveholders.

Scott Joplin (1868 --- 1917) was an African-American composer and pianist. Called the "King of Ragtime," he composed two operas (one lost to bankruptcy), one ragtime ballet and more than 40 ragtime pieces, the most famous being the Maple Leaf Ragtime considered the quintessential rag.

He was born in 1868 in Texarcana or Linden, Texas. His family were former slaves, played music but were very poor. He left in his early teens to tour the American South as a musician. He played at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1893 which helped popularize Ragtime into a national craze by 1897, despite music snobbery and racism. Music publishing of Maple Leaf Rag gave him a steady income by 1899. He ended up in New York City by 1907, trying to find a producer for his new opera, Treemonisha. In 1916, Joplin descended into dementia from neurosyphilis. Sadly, his early death in 1917 at age of 48 marked the end of the Ragtime era.

Joplin's music was rediscovered and returned to popularity in the early 1970s with the release of a million-selling album recorded by Joshua Rifkin. This was followed by the Academy Award®-winning film L'Arnaque (1973), which featured several of Joplin's compositions. Treemonisha, his second opera, was produced in 1972 and, in 1976 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (1887 - 1983) [Eubie Blake] was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. He was born only 19 years after Scott Joplin in Baltimore, also to a former slave family. He also had early musical training including composition and was a traveling musician including medicine shows, bordellos, hotels, vaudeville and mixed race clubs. He composed his first rag, Charleston Rag, at the age of 12. He worked in early films performing his music. He also recorded his music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle, another unsung hero of ragtime, blues and jazz, wrote "Shuffle Along," one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans.

As he lived a long life, he was able to survive until his music was revived in the 1970s and 1980s after recording a retrospective music album in 1969. His fame included appearing on television, on contemporary film, in a Broadway revue of his music, and receiving awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He performed and recorded until death in 1983, at the age of 96.