12 Comments
User's avatar
Anne Mallampalli's avatar

Ah…happy music!

Debra Esolen's avatar

Yes, it sure is. Just as you can't have a sad waltz, you can't have sad ragtime.

James & Jan Donovan's avatar

Loved Joshua Riken’s Scott Joplin records released way before The Sting, which reminds me that when Marvin Hamlisch won the Academy Award for best score for “The Sting” he thanked his mother and everybody in the world—except Scott Joplin. I guess put thw sting into “The Sting”!

Debra Esolen's avatar

Good grief! That has to go down in the books of Academy Award boners. I will keep the rest of my comment to myself!

James & Jan Donovan's avatar

I have to do a mea culpa myself. I did not recall Hamlisch thanking Scott Joplin but the Academy, according to AI, states that he credited Joplin. I was basing this on watching that awards show. But he did go up on stage three times that night-two for the “The Sting” and Song of the Year- for “The Way We Were”

Mrswu's avatar

Serendipity!

Jack's avatar

Weiss - Joplin Yet another example of accomplished people from the Old Country giving birth to genius in the New Country.

Debra Esolen's avatar

That was definitely a "thing." Fortunate us! In my own family it happened when my grandmother, then in her teens and attending the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, had the great fortune to study with Leopold Stokowski, newly arrived in America. People often don't know that he was an organist as well as a renowned conductor.

Fr. Scott Bailey, C.Ss.R.'s avatar

Makes me happy.😃

Steve Terenzio's avatar

"And like many of our readers, I first heard of Scott Joplin’s music through the soundtrack of 'The Sting' ...” Count me as one of those, Debra. As for the movie, I don't think at this point a spoiler alert is necessary to say that "the sting" was ultimately on the viewing audience.