Review that New York Times series, Jack Gould wrote: “The earthiness emphasized by the heavy cigar in his mouth and the flashy vest, and the erudition reflected in his knowledgeable commentary on the social forces that influence music and its expression are rare. In combination, he presides over a fine bolo piano, let’s go.”
The series was acquired by a commercial broadcaster, greatly expanding Moras’ audience. He soon juggled recording dates, college gigs (about 50 a year), and booking concerts and clubs. He also created another of his NET series “The Turn of the Century” (1962). This is his 15-part series in which Lantern uses his slides, photographs and other props to relate Ragtime’s music to that social, economic and political era.
Focusing on American life from the 1890s to the 1920s, Turn of the Century was a huge success. In addition to being seen on commercial television syndicates, it became a one-man show. Morath presented the production at New York’s Blue Angel and Village Vanguard, took it to Off-Broadway’s Jan Hus Playhouse in 1969, and toured it nationally for many years.
“In a fun two-hour excursion, Morath looks back at three decades spanning the era of McGuffey readers, women’s suffrage, grizzly bear dancing, prohibition, legal cannabis and Teddy Roosevelt,” said The Washington Post. . Mr. Morath opened at Ford’s Theater in 1970. “It was a time of great change in our country’s moral climate, and Mr. Morath used popular music, primarily ragtime, as a centrifugal force to organize the various stages.”
The ragtime revival surged in the 1970s, fueled by the success of Oscar-winning films by musicologist Joshua Rifkin, who recorded many of Scott Joplin’s works for the Nonesuch label in 1971, and George Roy Hill. “The Sting” (1973), Paul Newman and Robert Redford starred as con men, and Joplin’s “The Entertainer” was included on the soundtrack.
Mr. Morath has appeared on ‘The Bell Telephone Hour’, ‘Craft Music Hall’, ‘Today’, ‘The Tonight Show’ and Arthur Godfrey’s radio and television shows. Morath’s body of work, Ragtime Years, Living the Ragtime Life, The Ragtime Man, Ragtime Revisited, and Ragtime and Again is off It opened on Broadway and then toured nationwide.
