Max Morath: The Road to Ragtime [Hardcover]

Max Morath (Author), Diane Fay Skomars (Author), Ralph Schoenstein (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Walsworth Pub Co (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578640687
• ISBN-13: 978-1578640683
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,323,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable portrait of a wonderful performer and his world., October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Max Morath: The Road to Ragtime (Hardcover)

Only Max Morath and his wife, photographer Diane Skomars, could have created this book. It's a beautifully designed time capsule, a portrait of a showman who, though he plays music from the turn of the century, is very much a man of the present. The iconography of the freeway -- lurid hotel, restaurant, and gas station signs -- is part of this story, as well as Max's pithy words on chocolate malts, where to sit on an airplane (on the aisle toward the front), and a thoughtful final essay called "Thinking About the Music" wherein Max tells us exactly where American popular music came from.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Show Business, February 6, 2000

By 

Murray Horwitz (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Max Morath: The Road to Ragtime (Hardcover)

In all of the mass of literature about American entertainment, there are only a few books that give you an accurate idea of what show business is really like -- ACT ONE, by Moss Hart, THE TROUBLE WITH CINDERELLA, by Artie Shaw, ALL OF MY BEST FRIENDS, by George Burns, and the occasional passage in a star's autobiography (Sophie Tucker, Billy Rose, Little Richard).

Now, THE ROAD TO RAGTIME has joined that select company. Thanks to Max Morath and Diane Fay Skomars, we have a document that shows what real American show business is like in the late 20th Century trenches -- the one-man show, the community concerts circuit, the roadhouses and honky-tonks, radio, television, and anywhere else there's an audience ready to be entertained.

Max Morath is one of America's greatest entertainers. He's one of those magical peformers who's able to get the audience in the palm of his hand the moment he takes the stage. What's extraordinary is that he's been able to be so successful without ever compromising the integrity of his music.

He's a national treasure -- and this terrific book helps us unlock it.

-- Murray Horwitz National Public Radio

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A glorious and witty picture book covering Morath's career., October 25, 1999

By 

Edward Berlin (Malverne, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Max Morath: The Road to Ragtime (Hardcover)

For Max Morath fans, it's a must: a glorious, glossy picture book with photos covering his entire career, accompanied by a text sprinkled with his humorous and perceptive observations about music and society. It's the type of material that has defined his performances, that has endeared him to us, and it continues to delight. The "road" of the title has a double meaning, embracing both the course of his career in ragtime and the course of a traveling performer's life. Each road occupies equal space in the book, with Morath's travels through America sparking additional observations about such topics as air travel, interstate highways, restaurants, chocolate malteds, among others. With his usual wit and charm, Morath finds meaning in the mundane. Photographs by his wife, Diane Fay Skomars, document these journeys, adding definition to the already vivid commentaries.