Scott Joplin (film)

Scott Joplin
Genre Biography
Drama
Music
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Starring Billy Dee Williams
Music by Scott Joplin
Dick Hyman
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Executive producer(s) Rob Cohen
Producer(s) Stanley Hough
Janet Hubbard
Cinematography David M. Walsh
Editor(s) Patrick Kennedy
Running time 96 min.
Production company(s) Universal Studios
Motown Productions
Distributor NBC
Universal Studios
Release
Original network NBC
Original release December 30, 1977

Scott Joplin is a 1977 biographical film directed by Jeremy Kagan and based on the life of American composer and pianist Scott Joplin. It stars Billy Dee Williams and Clifton Davis. It won an award from the Writers Guild of America in 1979.[1] The only other composers mentioned as worthy equals in the film are John Philip Sousa and Jelly Roll Morton.

Plot

In the late 19th century, Scott Joplin, a young African-American musician, moves to Missouri and to make ends meet finds a job as a piano teacher. He befriends Louis Chauvin, who plays piano in a brothel.

Joplin composes ragtime music. One day his "Maple Leaf Rag" is heard by John Stark, a publisher of sheet music in St. Louis. Stark is impressed, buys the rights to the composition and sells it, with Joplin sharing some of the profits. Joplin's new songs also achieve a great popularity.

Chauvin is equally talented, but contracts syphilis and dies in his 20s. Joplin, meantime, becomes obsessed with composing more serious music, yet is continually thwarted in his attempt to write and publish an opera.

Cast

References

External links


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