Ragtime: The Turn of the 20th Century in the East Village
The movie Ragtime, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Milos Forman, follows the stories of several historic and fictional characters through turn of the 20th century New York, New Rochelle, and Atlantic City. Released on November 20, 1981, it was nominated for eight Oscars, seven Golden Globes and a Grammy for best original soundtrack, but didn’t win any of them.
The film has numerous ties to our neighborhoods. In 1980, parts of the East Village were altered to resemble the tun-of-the-20th century Lower East Side for filming.
Features such as historic-looking signage, awnings and clothes lines were added to make the scene appear more accurate. Luckily, many of the surrounding buildings, which date to around when the movie was meant to take place, still feature many of their original architectural details, allowing for an easier and more historically accurate transformation. See them all in our Historic Image Archive
The historical figures who play a role in the film include J.P. Morgan, Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbit, and Stanford White.
The Emma Goldman story line was originally large but most was cut in the final version. Goldman had extensive ties to the neighborhood including labor lecturing and organizing. She was arrested on October 30, 1906 as a result of articles published in Mother Earth, which was founded in Goldman’s apartment at 208 East 11th Street in the East Village, where she lived from 1903-1913.
Norman Mailer played the role of Stanford White. A large plotline of the film and fascinating true life crime drama, focused on White’s murder at the hands of millionaire industrialist Henry K. Thaw, driven to rage after finding out about the sexual relationship between White and Thaw’s wife, the former chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit.
White grew up at 118 East 10th Street and, at the time of the murder, was a highly acclaimed and respected architect and partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White.
White, along with his partners Charles McKim and William Mead, designed some of New York’s and the country’s finest structures in the late 19th and early 20th centuries including the Washington Square Arch, Judson Memorial Church, the Cable Building, the Bowery Savings Bank Building, and of course the original Penn Station.
In Ragtime an 81-year old James Cagney also came out of retirement to play New York Police Commissioner Rheinlander Waldo in his final role. The film also includes early roles for Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, Fran Drescher, Samuel L. Jackson, Ethan Phillips, and John Ratzenberger.