Ragtime music publisher John Stark (Art Carney) watches Scott Joplin (Billy Dee Williams) walk down the back stairs of the Grand Opera House in New York City and recalls events from the composer's life. Joplin grows up in a musical family led by his mother, who washes clothes to pay for her son's piano lessons. When she dies, Scott's father considers music an activity for home and church and expects his son to labor for the railroad. Instead, Scott leaves home and finds work playing piano in a bordello. On his last day before leaving for Sedalia, Missouri, in 1899, Scott meets his replacement, Louis Chauvin (Clifton Davis), who decides to go with Scott and enter a "cutting contest," a head-to-head piano competition. The two agree to share the earnings if either one wins. In Sedalia's Maple Leaf Club, Scott tells the piano tuner that the A-flat key on one of the pianos is flat and introduces himself as a budding composer. The man advises him to seek out John Stark. Later, Chauvin informs his friend that the piano-tuner is Stark. During the competition, flashy performers eliminate one another, but Scott and Chauvin are the last men standing and Chauvin wins. However, the original tune by Scott catches the attention of Stark, who asks to see the music in his office the next day. Stark offers Scott $50 for the composition, called "Maple Leaf Rag," with ten percent royalties. Scott is ordered to demonstrate the tune by playing all day in Stark's store-front window, and to deliver the written composition that afternoon. Back at the Maple Leaf Club, the other piano players warn Scott that Stark is cheating him. Chauvin suggests they take their $100 prize money and move downriver to New Orleans, Louisiana. As Scott works on another song, he is seduced by a young woman and misses his appointment with Stark, who finds Scott at the Maple Leaf. When Scott announces that he can earn more playing saloons and brothels than by taking Stark's deal, Stark accuses the composer of fearing the challenge and Scott changes his mind. After signing with Stark, the sheet music to "Maple Leaf Rag" and other songs sell briskly, and ragtime music becomes popular. In 1901, a beautiful woman admires Scott's playing at Stark's store, so Scott follows her to a cemetery. He learns she is a widow named Belle Hayden (Margaret Avery) and they spend the day together. Scott tells her that Stark is moving his business to St. Louis, Missouri, and asks her to accompany him as his wife. They marry, move to St. Louis, and his publishing success continues. Later, Scott experiences some loss of control in his hand. Meanwhile, Sam Bundler (David Healy), the arts and music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, comes to Stark's offices to interview Scott, wanting to write a piece decrying ragtime as the commercialization of a fad. Later, Scott sees a doctor who informs him that he has a secondary stage of syphilis. Scott has not yet infected Belle, but the disease could affect the child she is carrying, and the third stage could be debilitating for Scott. At the Joplin home, Chauvin visits with a prostitute on each arm. He teases Scott for his conservative appearance while Scott chides Chauvin for playing his music in ways other than it was written. Chauvin bears an invitation for Scott to play a gala gathering of madams at Tom Turpin's (Godfrey Cambridge) club and Scott dismisses the idea, despite longing for his raucous youth. When Belle says she does not mind if Scott plays at the club, he makes a surprise appearance and receives an ovation. As he plays, however, he remembers the woman who seduced and infected him in Sedalia and his hands begin to tremble. He recovers, but Chauvin observes the difference in his friend's performance. Sometime later, Stark notices that something is bothering Scott, who says he wants to distance himself from the past. Stark assures Scott that he is a great American composer and that he is proposing Scott to a committee staging the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. However, the committee, including Bundler, describes ragtime as crude and is reticent to feature Scott's music alongside John Philip Sousa. Meanwhile, Scott hopes for committee approval and writes a new rag for the fair. Receiving a note from Chauvin saying that he is ill, Scott reluctantly visits his friend, who asks him to transcribe his music so he, too, will be remembered. As Chauvin plays and Scott writes the notes, Chauvin loses control of his hands and says he will send for Scott when he has recovered. Afterward, on the street, Stark says that the committee has approved Scott for the World's Fair and that Belle has given birth to a baby girl. Scott rushes home to discover there is something wrong with the baby, so he confesses he has been deceitful. The World's Fair arrives and Scott's music is ignored, overwhelmed by the scope and volume of Souza and his orchestra. Scott rages at Stark for failing him and decides that he is going to write an opera in ragtime. Stark warns that it will be professional suicide, adding that he is moving to New York City and the Joplins should accompany him. Scott returns home in turmoil and finds Belle sitting alone in the nursery; the baby has died and Belle leaves him. Scott stops speaking to Stark and pours his energy into writing the opera. One day, he comes across the composition he transcribed for Chauvin and remembers his friend's request for help. In 1906 Chicago, Illinois, a derelict Chauvin returns to home to find Scott playing the piano and the old friends reunite before Chauvin passes away. In 1910, Scott goes to New York City to see Stark and hands him the composition he wrote with Chauvin, as well as a stack of newly written rags. After a celebratory dinner, Scott tells Stark that he has finished the opera, Treemonisha, and he wants Stark to finance it, but the publisher guesses that Scott is ill and tells the composer he will not pay penance for Scott's misdeeds. Later, Scott begins rehearsals with performers on his own, but they do not go well. Poor Alfred (musician Taj Mahal), Scott's piano player, tells Stark that Scott needs $3,000 to produce the opera and reports of the staging of a one-night, bare-bones showcase in Harlem. Although Stark claims he is penniless and is moving back to St. Louis, Alfred confesses that Scott is dying of syphilis and Stark agrees to find a backer. Later, Scott performs for one of Stark's potential investors and Stark reflects on Scott's career. While playing "The Entertainer," Scott's hands give him trouble and he is unable to finish. Later, Stark and Scott say goodbye on the back stairs of the Grand Opera House and Scott walks home alone as snow falls around him. In 1974, Joplin's music won an Academy Award® for The Sting (1973), Treemonisha was staged successfully on Broadway; and in 1976, the composer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Joplin died in 1917.
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