# Ragtime music in old movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ragtime-music-in-old-movies/196488 "2003-08-20T17:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ragtime-music-in-old-movies/196488/1 "2003-08-20T17:32:56Z")
For those who weren’t around yet, there was a ragtime revival of sorts that began in 1970 and lasted about 10 years. Music publishers brought out the complete work of Scott Joplin and other composers of the era, and college dorm music rooms were alive with the sounds of students pounding this stuff out in their spare time. I was one of those students, and at one time had a repertoire of thirty or forty pieces under my belt. Common wisdom has it that ragtime exploded on the scene around 1899 and faded into virtual oblivion from about 1950 on. Joplin’s publisher John Stark continued putting out scores by other writers, right up to the early 1920’s, but by then they were so passe as to go virtually unnoticed. So the first time I watched the 1930 film _The Public Enemy_, with Cagney as a gangster, I was surprised to hear someone playing _Maple Leaf Rag_ in the background during one scene. It was played slowly and deliberately, as by someone struggling to play it all the way through for the first time. This particular scene is supposed to be from the Cagney character’s youth, taking place in 1915. Still I was astonished that the producers of the film, in 1930, thought of using the _Maple Leaf Rag_ which was published in 1899. So I’m wondering if there are any similar occurrences of genuine ragtime in early sound films. Does anyone know of any? Please understand that Western saloon scenes with a piano player banging out _Oh, Dem Golden Slippers_ or a Dixieland band doing _When The Saints Go Marching In_ don’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ragtime-music-in-old-movies/196488/2 "2003-08-20T17:37:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spectre of Pithecanthropus \* > \*\*Common wisdom has it that ragtime exploded on the scene around 1899 and faded into virtual oblivion from about 1950 on. \*\* Oops, that would be “from about **1915** on”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ragtime-music-in-old-movies/196488/3 "2003-08-20T18:00:44Z")
Well, of course there’s [Tin Pan Alley](http://imdb.com/Title?0033167) (1940), but that’s _about_ ragtime. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ragtime-music-in-old-movies/196488/4 "2003-08-21T02:21:27Z")
From the IMDb soundtrack listings: _Tiger Rag_ in **Birth of the Blues** (1941), **Black Angel** (1946), **Hits and Bits of 1938** (1938), **Is Everybody Happy?** (1929), **Juke Box Jenny** (1942), **New Orleans** (1947) **Sandy Is a Lady** (1940), **The Singing Marine** (1937), **Strike Up the Band** (1940); in animated shorts **Betty Boop and Grampy** (1933), **Blitz Wolf** (1942), **Fine Feathered Friend** (1942), **Goopy Geer** (1932), **I Ain’t Got Nobody** (1932). **The Old Mill Pond** (1936), **Uncle Tom’s Cabaña** (1947); in Vitaphone shorts **An All-Colored Vaudeville Show** (1935), **The Band Beautiful** (1928), **Gus Arnheim and His Ambassadors** (1928), **Harry Reser and His Eskimos** (1936), **Melody Master Bands: Dixieland Jamboree** (1946), **That’s the Spirit** (1933) _Bugle Call Rag_ in **A Bundle of Blues** (1933), **Moments of Charm** (1939 Paramount short), **Orchestra Wives** (1942) _That International Rag_ in **Call Me Madam** (1953) _12th Street Rag_ in **Close Harmony** (1929), **Juke Box Rhythm** (1959) _Ragtime Violin_ in **Easter Parade** (1948) _Lullaby in Ragtime_ in **The Five Pennies** (1959) _Varsity Rag_ in **Good News** (1930 & 1947) _Ragtime Cowboy Joe_ in **Hello, Frisco, Hello** (1943), **Incendiary Blonde** (1945), **Law of the West** (1932), **Near the Rainbow’s End** (1930) _Texas Washboard Rag_ in **Hittin’ the Trail** (1937) _The Johnson Rag_ in **The I Don’t Care Girl** (1953) _Accordion Rag_ in **Modernaires with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra** (1952 Universal short) _Hello, My Ragtime Gal_ and _The Michigan Rag_ in **One Froggy Evening** (1955 Warner Bros. animated short) _Teasing Rag_ in **Somebody Loves Me** (1952) _Lone Star Rag_ in **Take Me Back to Oklahoma** (1940) _Maple Leaf Rag_ in **The Whoopee Party** (1932 Disney animated short) _Home Run on the Keys_ in the Vitaphone short of the same name (1936)