In the early days of public television, the medium was dominated by lectures given by instructors in front of plain backgrounds. One of the programs to break out of that mold was performer and historian Max Morath’s “The Ragtime Era” which was pioneering in its use of sets, costumes and make-up.
In this recently unearthed 1960 episode from the WNET archives, Morath delves into the history of Tin Pan Alley.

Morath’s contribution to the development of public television is matched only by his background as a ragtime historian and player. He was interviewed for the American Experience film “America 1900″ and spoke about ragtime music.

“One of the misconceptions of ragtime is that it was strictly a piano music. Ragtime was everything. By the time we get to 1900 and on, for 15 years ragtime is this, ragtime is theatre, ragtime is in orchestration. It’s — it becomes a term that, frankly, it becomes rather useless because everything was called ragtime, as, for instance, everything in the ’60s is called rock.”