From Rags To Amadeus Riches: Stanzi (Spoiler)

Naturally, most of the main female characters in Ragtime remind me of Stanzi

Coalhouse Walker Jr.'s wife actually gives her life trying to make the Vice President aware of Coalhouse's ordeal with his car. It's kind of like the director's cut of Amadeus where Stanzi risks her marriage and social standing when she's willing to sleep with Salieri to get her husband the desperately needed position teaching the Emperor's niece.

Stanzi definitely knew the value of money and did what she had to do to find financial stability for her family and I was thinking of that in the scene in Ragtime where Elizabeth McGovern (to the chagrin of Brad Dourif) agrees to a lump sum for a divorce settlement rather than fight for the $1 Million she was initially promised. Let us not forget the more obvious connection between Elizabeth McGovern and Stanzi: they both bare their breasts.

Stanzi was more concerned with what she though was right than what society dictated as being normal (like going behind Mozart's back to get him employed teaching the Emperor's niece or demanding down payment for "The Magic Flute" from Schikaner). In 1900's America, Mary Steenburgen's character definitely inhibits that believe when she makes the astounding decision to allow a poor single African-American mother and her child into her family's home. The off-screen debate on whether to allow the African-American child into the house reminds me of Stanzi's debate with Leopold on whether to allow a maid into the house without reference (in both cases the woman wins)

I was amused to learn Mary Steenburgen was in Ragtime since in 9 years she would play Doc Brown's wife in Back To The Future III and Christopher Lloyd had already worked with Milos Forman in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.