Historical Figures in Ragtime

Historical Figures in Ragtime

Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss)

• Performed magic and escape feats, in excellent shape
• President of the Society of American Magicians and the Magician's Club in London
• Acted in silent films
• Died from appendix burst (punched in stomach after days of no sleep and deteriorating health)

Harry K. Thaw

• Born February 12, 1871
• Violent and paranoid since birth
• Constant rivalry with architect Stanford White culminating in his marriage to Evelyn Nesbit
• After he shot White three times, killing him, his mother paid Evelyn Nesbit 1 million dollars and promised her a divorce if she claimed White had driven Thaw to insanity
• He won with his insanity plea so he went to an insane asylum instead of prison
• He was reincarcerated in 1917 after sexually assaulting and whipping a teenage boy

Scott Joplin

• Lived from circa 1867 to 1917
• His father was formally a slave
• His family lived of both sides of the Arkansas/Texas border
• He worked in Sedalia, Missouri
• He took music classes at George R. Smith college for African Americans
• Booker T. Washington and Joplin connection - Joplin wrote an opera called "A Guest of Honor" about Washington having dinner at Roosevelt's White House
• He publish a manual called "School Of Ragtime"
• He had 3 wives
• He had perfect pitch
• He wrote an opera called "Treemonisha" which eventually got published in 1911 and reached Broadway. It's about African American struggle out of ignorance and superstition
• He had Tertiary Syphilis, which had devestating physical and mental effects, and eventually died in a mental institution on April 1, 1917
• His character was very similar to the character of Coalhouse in that he was intelligent, quiet, well-mannered, and eloquent
• There's a musical out now called "Tin Pan Alley Rag" which is about the relationship between Joplin and Irving Berlin

Henry Ford

• Started as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company
• Invented Quadricycle: Engine, 2 speeds, No reverse
• Started the Ford Motor Company which became the largest automobile manufacturer in the world
• Model T - majority of cars
• Interchangable Parts (more efficient, less specific)
• Assembly Line (reduced time, lowered cost)
• Mass Production

Jacob Riis

• Born May 3, 1849
• Muckraking journalist and photographer
• Opened middle class eyes to the horrors of tenement life
• He was a Danish-American immigrant and the third of fifteen children
• He was one of the first photographers to use flash
• He was 21 when he came to the United States in 1870
• Although he was groundbreaking in his sense of populist justice, he had certain biases towards woman and certain races

Tom Thumb

• He was born Charles Sherwood Stratton
• Known as General Tom Thumb
• He stopped growing at 6 months
• Discovered by P.T. Barnum in 1842 when he was 4 years old
• Barnum taught him to sing, dance, and imitate famous people
• He performed at the American Museum toured as one of the world's best known midgets
• He appeared before Queen Victoria
• He brought the voice of Elmer Fudd to America
• He married Lavinia Warren, another midget in P.T. Barnum's act
• He died in 1883, age 46, 3.3 feet tall, 71 pounds
• Over 10,000 people attended the funeral

Evelyn Nesbit

• Moved to New York City at age 16 to become a model
• Became a chorus girl on broadway
• Met Stanford White, who turned her into "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing"
• Married Thaw (a sadist)
• After Thaw's trial and death, Nesbit received little money from his will
• Became unattractive and unsuccessful

Robert Edwin Peary

• American expolorer
• Born May 6, 1856
• Claims to have been the first person to reach the geographic north pole
• His claims are widely considered to be untruthful today
• He had 8 toes amputated
• He studied Inuit techniques and did things in the native fashion which proved to be most successful
• His wife, Josephine, accompianed him on several expeditions
• He had an African American assitant who is also accredited with reaching the north pole named Matthew Henson

Sigmund Freud

• 1856 to 1939
• Grew up in a Jewish family
• Jewish name was Schlomo
• He changed his name from Sigismund to Sigmund at age 22
• He planned to study law and then decided on medical school
• Contributed much activity to the realm of psychoanalysis (sometimes known as "Father of Psychoanalysis" and he used it as therapy)
• Urinated in his parents bedroom on purpose, which induced the quote, "There will become nothing of this boy."

Historical Figures in Ragtime