Ellis Island: The Dream of America
Ellis Island: The Dream of America is a work for actors and orchestra with projected images by American composer Peter Boyer, composed in 2001-02, commissioned by the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut. The work combines first-person narrations of seven immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island between 1910 and 1940, selected by Boyer from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, with Boyer’s original orchestral music. The work has received over 170 performances by more than 75 orchestras. A recording of the work released on the Naxos record label was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition in the 48th annual Grammy Awards. In April 2017, performances by Pacific Symphony of "Ellis Island: The Dream of America" were filmed for broadcast on PBS’ "Great Performances" series in the 2017-18 broadcast season.
Ellis Island (miniseries)
Ellis Island is a television miniseries, filmed in the United Kingdom, broadcast in three parts in 1984 on the CBS television network. The screenplay was co-written by Fred Mustard Stewart, adapted from his 1983 novel of the same title. The series tells the story of several immigrants from the late 19th century until the early 1910s, trying to achieve the American Dream and arriving on Ellis Island, hoping for a better life. "Ellis Island" highlighted numerous important events which occurred up to and during World War I, and many of the characters are based on real persons, such as Irving Berlin. The series marks the final appearance of Richard Burton, and was dedicated to his memory.
In 1907 Jacob Rubinstein, a Russian Jew leaves his village after it is attacked by cossacks and his father, the local Rabbi, is murdered. While he was fleeing he is shot in the leg by the same cossack who killed his father. Jacob though, scares the cossack's horse, causing the horse to throw the cossack off. Jacob takes his revenge, shoots the cossack and takes the horse. He arrives in Hamburg, Germany, with the aim of emigrating to America. Even after selling the horse he is still short of the cost of a steerage class ticket. Depressed, Jacob walks around Hamburg docks and is persuaded into a brothel after hearing piano music. When inside, he meets an African American called Roscoe Haines, the piano player. Jacob is impressed by the Ragtime that Roscoe is playing and asks if he can try to play. Jacob is, to Roscoe's surprise very good at it. Roscoe organises a collection from everyone inside the brothel to raise the money Jacob needs for his ticket. Roscoe also tells Jacob to go and see a music publisher called Abe Shulman when he gets to New York City.