- He's a physician, a veteran, a triathlete, a heart attack survivor, and Memphis theatergoers know him as a super sponsor.

This is the remarkable story of a Memphis doctor who helps raise the curtain on the performances we love.

I'm George Larrimore.

Join us for A Conversation with Dr.

Thomas Ratliff.

[gentle music] Dr.

Ratliff, we really appreciate you being here today.

I want to tell our audience, I love theater.

And Memphis is such a great place to have theater because we have such great actors and directors and writers and dancers and musicians, but there's always has to be someone to make it all go.

And Dr.

Ratliff is one of those people.

He is what's known in the theater world, in Memphis as a super sponsor.

We really appreciate what you've done.

As I said, I like to know what people do.

I pick up the programs every time I go to the theater.

I read where people are from, and where they've gone to school and what their training is and what they like to do.

And when I first started going to the theater here in Memphis, I would look at it, and I would see Dr.

Ratliff's name.

And finally, after a little while, I thought, "Who is this guy?"

This is like a year ago.

And so I finally just asked Bard here at WKNO, "Why don't we talk to Dr.

Ratliff?"

Because you sponsor everything.

I've got, these are a bunch of the programs we've got, but you sponsor so many shows.

Where do you put your efforts and your resources into in the arts world in Memphis?

- Well, I like arts, in general.

I was in theater in high school, and really got the theater bug then, and then just kind of, it kind of grew over the years.

And then when I got to Memphis in 1999, I started going to Playhouse on the Square and Circuit Playhouse, and I saw play "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", which really, I had seen it off Broadway and I saw it in Memphis, and Memphis blew it away.

They beat Broadway, off Broadway.

So I thought, well, I really need to sponsor them, because this is a good deal.

And plus I wanted to kind of get my name out in the community.

So I started sponsoring Playhouse on the Square.

And then I moved up to the super sponsor, which is sponsoring all of their shows.

And then I started sponsoring Theatre Memphis and then Iris Orchestra, which was in Germantown, and now is really just Memphis Iris Orchestra, Iris Collective.

And then finally Opera Memphis.

So those are the four that I sponsor now.

- What do you get out of it?

What sort of pleasure do you get out of being able to do that?

- Well, you know, I just- - I mean, I know you're a doctor, you're hardly going to have the time to be a performer or a writer or any other part of it, but you do get something I can imagine, enjoyment, from being able to sponsor it.

- Well, I just love theater, and a lot of times I'll, if the theater show, whatever it is makes me cry a little bit, then I know it's a success.

And then almost all the time it makes me cry a little bit.

So that's just saying that.

And I also have noticed over the years that the voices are getting better.

Used to you would hear an off-tone voice or somebody that was out of key.

I don't hear that anymore.

So I think the money is, and the support is playing a role.

- And we were talking before we started.

As you know, it's really easy to say, well really, we really have great theater here.

We have great live music.

We have this and that.

We really do have great theater here.

- We have wonderful theater.

I think it rivals Chicago, maybe not quite Chicago, but a lot of the actors from Memphis do go to Chicago, and move on up in the ranks.

- Do you pretty much see everything?

- I pretty much see everything in those four venues.

- So you like opera as well?

- I like opera as well, yeah.

I started liking opera probably in the 1990s.

Some friends took me to the opera and I just didn't know anything about it really, but quickly learned and learned to love it.

- Now you mentioned something.

We talked on the phone a couple of weeks ago.

You were in the Air Force, and I believe you were in San Antonio.

Tell me about that.

You were in the Air Force and after your training, you went to San Antonio, Texas.

So tell me, I think you said you sort of got again, turned on to theater while you were there, because of the people that you met.

- I did.

A friend of mine was active in theater.

He played the piano and accompanied a lot of the actors.

So he got me into theater.

So I really started enjoying it again at that time.

- What did you see there?

Do you remember what show it was?

- Oh, "Company", and several other shows.

I can't remember all the shows, yeah.

- Tell me about when you moved to Memphis.

You mentioned that earlier, but did you feel like you had to make a choice of whether you could get involved in the theater community either backstage or in some part of it?

Or did you have to just say, "This is what I can do, this is what I can do best."

- Well, I moved here from Biloxi.

I was in the military for six years down there, and mostly just went to theater shows.

That's when I started going to theater shows and didn't really have time to act or anything like that.

So just kind of did the same thing in Memphis.

I realized I didn't have time to act or perform.

- Would you mind, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about the early part of your life, where you were from, what you did in school.

- Well, I was from a small town called Van Vleck and Cedar Lane in southwest of Houston, Texas on the Gulf Coast there.

And it was a small school, went to high school, and I did pretty good.

And I thought, "Well, maybe I'll try to be a doctor."

My great uncle died of lung cancer, and he was treated for it.

So that kind of interested me in medicine.

And so then I went to Texas A&M and graduated from there, and then went to Southwestern Medical School, which is in Dallas.

And then from there I went to San Antonio, and did my postgraduate training in oncology and internal medicine, and then to Biloxi and then now in Memphis since 19 - - And you were in the Air Force in San Antonio?

- I was, yes.

- That's a really big medical center down there.

- It is.

Yes, sir.

- Yeah.

I remember I had gone down there for work at one time, and was walking across the campus.

This was only 15 years ago and was walking across the campus and I saw this young man, he couldn't have been more than, I don't know, 21 or 22, and he had lost one of his legs.

- Oh.

- And I remember seeing, and I know you've had this experience, you see the look on his face, and you realize what's going on inside him, or what must be going on inside him at that kind of a loss that early in life.

- That's really sad.

- Yeah, that's a really remarkable place down there.

They're really committed people, Air Force people.

Now I understand that when I'm reading about you, that you had had a heart attack.

If you don't mind, tell us a little bit about how that happened in your life.

- Well, it is an important part of my life.

Because in 2011, I was on the way to work, and I was 50 at that time, and I started having pain right here in my chest and just didn't seem like it was a normal kind of pain.

So I started breaking out in sweats when I got to the hospital to make rounds.

And we looked for my favorite cardiologist, but he wasn't there.

So we called someone in and he met me in the emergency room and I was having a heart attack and had to go to bypass surgery that night.

- Wow.

- So that was a big shock for me, yeah.

- How did it affect your, and I'm sure you've told many people about perhaps changes they need to make in their daily routines or what they eat, or what they exercise.

What did you tell yourself when that happened to you?

- Well, I just said, "Well, I think I need to make some changes in my life."

At that time I was making rounds 'til one or two in the morning, and then getting up at six, just not sleeping well, and working too hard.

So I just made some changes in that, and just made myself go to bed at a good time to get sleep.

That was the first thing.

And then a friend saw me at a party eating a shrimp, and she said, "You're supposed to be vegan."

I said, "Oh really?"

So I started looking into that, and it seemed like the way to go.

So I've been vegan for 15 years now, plant-based, and it's worked for me.

I'm still alive at 66 and very fit.

I do triathlons.

I started walking every day and then started running some, and then running races, which I'd never done in my life.

And then a friend talked me into going to triathlon.

So I've been doing that now for about 11 years.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- So you had not had regular exercise before that?

- I swam and ran some, but not every day, no.

- What was your first triathlon like?

- Well, it was nerve wracking.

- The training or the performing?

- Well, the training, I just tried to do the best I could.

I had about eight weeks to get prepared, and I did the best I could.

And I got there and Pam is my friend, Pam Ruth.

She is a good friend of mine now, and she was there, and she was kind of bossing everybody around.

She said, "This number means you're supposed to be in line with that number."

I didn't know that.

So that made me nervous, but I got through it.

I just kind of made it through the swim, and it's a swim, bike, run.

So then on the bike I just decided that this is fun.

I'm on a bike ride.

So I just did a bike ride, and then I was already running at that time, so I ran pretty good.

And then I finished and I was almost last in the triathlon.

So I thought, I have a lot... That made me want to do better and grow in the sport more.

- And you're still participating in it.

- I'm still participating, and I've done seven half Ironmans, which is 70.3 miles, and still going, yeah.

- How is your heart?

- My heart is doing great.

I think with the plant-based diet and the exercise, it's just been really good.

- If you do talk about theater a little more, you're younger than me, but I've come to really love the theater here in this community especially.

And how do you think we... It's wonderful to see older people in the audience.

It's wonderful to be in an art form that appreciates an older audience.

But one of the things that's always concerned me, and I'm sure it concerns everyone who's in that world, in that business, is sometimes the shortage of younger people in the audiences.

Is that a concern to you as someone who loves theater?

- Well, I think it's always a concern.

Yes, it is.

Now, my friend from Imagine restaurant, that's a vegan restaurant in Memphis, she has formed a youth theater company.

And so I think that's a good start to get younger people involved.

And so there are a lot of efforts to get young people into theater.

Playhouse has, and Theatre Memphis both have, and Iris Orchestra and Memphis Symphony.

They all have efforts to involve young people in their organizations.

- We want to ask you, we have a huge medical community here.

They always have had.

A lot of the center of it has moved further east now than it was in the past.

But do you think the doctors, particularly say people that come in town to work at St.

Jude, do you think they learn to accept the culture, learn to enjoy the culture in Memphis?

It seems that you have.

I mean, obviously you have, but do you think people in the medical profession have sort of discovered, or tend to discover the culture here in Memphis?

- I think it's just like any profession.

You have some people that are going to really accept the culture, the theater culture, and go to it, and some won't.

I don't know.

Yeah, sure, yeah.

- Of the shows that you've seen in the time you've been in Memphis, what are some of the ones that you liked the most?

- Well, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was one.

They did "Les Miserables" at Playhouse, that was fantastic.

Theatre Memphis has done multiple shows that have been wonderful.

They do Shakespeare shows, and they make them enjoyable, so that's good.

- Do you get out to see the Shakespeare company here, the Tennessee Shakespeare Company?

- I have been a couple times, but not, I don't... No, not as much as I would like to.

- Yeah, they do a really good job.

I was surprised the first time we went that I thought, well, usually Nashville will take something like this, and we won't get it, but here we have it in Memphis.

- We do, for sure.

That's a very good company.

- Yeah, what about the operas?

Tell us about some of the operas that you like.

- "Carmen" was one of my favorites from the past couple of years, yeah.

- How much longer do you see yourself working?

- Well, work just kind of gives me a good purpose, and gives me money to give to people.

And so I probably will keep working.

I'm 66, so probably till 75 or 80, I guess, as long as my health stays up, yeah.

- But your health is good now as far as you can tell?

- As far as I can tell, it's very good.

Yes, sir.

- Do you travel for triathlons?

Or you travel for theater?

Do you go to New York or go to... You were talking about Chicago a minute ago.

- I've been all over the world, and been to opera in London and New York and San Francisco and Berlin, and in theater and opera and then in Vienna, yeah.

- You like Broadway?

You go to Broadway?

- We do go to Broadway a lot, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Well, not a lot, but just whenever we get to New York, yeah.

- Right.

What have you seen that you like recently?

You could be like a tour guide now.

- We saw "Smash" the musical.

It was a series, and it was a musical based on that.

That was really good.

- Oh, it is?

Okay.

- In London, we saw "Pride" the musical.

It's based on a movie where the time of AIDS starting and some gay guys in London wanted to support the miners that were striking in Margaret Thatcher times.

And so they did.

And then the miners came and marched with the gay guys in the parade.

So that was really nice, yeah.

- Have you had the life that you thought you would have?

Are you happy with the choice you made to go into the medical profession?

- I'm very happy with that.

With oncology, we have new advances every week, every day.

And so it's hard to keep up, but it's amazing that patients are living longer than they ever have before.

And that's rewarding.

It's very rewarding.

- How did you choose oncology?

And you're in hematology as well, I think.

- Yes, sir.

Well, like I said, my great uncle had lung cancer, so that kind of started me in oncology from the very beginning.

And then I just kind of went through the different specialties and liked internal medicine.

And then one of my friends said, "Hey, I'm doing oncology.

You should come do it with me."

I said, "Okay."

So I did it, and didn't look back, yeah.

- Do you see any connection between people participating in the arts, either actively, or as an audience member, and health, whether it's psychological health or physical health?

Do you feel like that's a good part of a lifestyle for someone to have?

- Well, like I said, if a show's really good, it makes me cry a little bit.

I think that's a really good emotional catharsis.

- That's a good release, isn't it?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- So I think it's good for you, yeah.

- All right, we were talking about where you've lived, where you're from, and then the moving around that you did.

How did you happen to come here?

And what made you decide to stay here?

- So I met some friends in Biloxi and they got a job here.

My friend got a job in Memphis and came here, and I was interviewing around the country with different jobs, and it was basically here, or Reno, Nevada.

And I thought, "Well, my friend's here, and I really like the people here and the job."

My mother was born in Memphis, so I thought, "Well, that's kind of fun."

So I took the job in Memphis, and then my friend got transferred to Pensacola.

So I didn't know anybody when I came here.

- Right.

- But it worked out really good.

- So when did you come?

- In 1999.

- 1999, okay.

So you've made friends here?

- I have made friends, and through my triathlon, through Pilates.

I do Pilates with Benton Wilbanks, and so we're friends, and then a lot of theater friends too, yeah.

- You get a lot of people in the medical profession, you always think of St.

Jude.

And every time we go out to Mud Island to go, we walk along the river out there.

And you look at those houses, you think, well, so many of those people came here from somewhere else, never expecting perhaps to come to Memphis as a place to live.

- Yes.

- And people do seem to kind of fall in love with it, with its quirks and difficulties and everything else.

It's an interesting town, isn't it?

- It really is.

I've enjoyed living here.

And like I said, made some really good friends, so, yeah.

- If you were in New York, you often think that you can have an opportunity in Memphis because we need people like yourself, people who have ambitions in areas beyond what they do for a living, that you can make a difference here.

Does that occur to you ever, that you can make a difference here that you might not be able to make in, say, Los Angeles or San Francisco or somewhere?

- Oh, absolutely, yeah.

I think, my contributions would be nothing in Los Angeles, I don't think, but they're very important in Memphis, yeah.

- What do you see the future of the arts in Memphis in the current economic environment?

Is there enough, is there, in the long view, is there enough resource here to keep the art?

Our theater community is extraordinarily good.

The ballet community, we have three ballet companies here.

We have a really active opera company.

Do you see that we have the resources in this city for generous people like yourself to make this city be what we want it to be?

We know what we have as a history.

Our history in popular music, particularly our history of Black music is so profound.

Do you feel like we are in a position to have the kind of community that we want to have from an arts perspective?

- I do think there's that chance, for sure.

We have FedEx, we have AutoZone, we have large banking companies here.

All of those are very generous with their funds.

So I think we do have the resources.

- You think our reputation is something that works against us?

There's been a lot of difficulty in Memphis, but again, a lot of times people don't, they won't go downtown to see a baseball game, for example.

They do go to The Orpheum.

The Orpheum is strictly a commercial venture, but what we see at The Orpheum is strictly commercial, but it's shows that people want to see.

But do you feel like we have the tools, an active schedule at The Orpheum, the Halloran Center?

You feel like those things are working to help people like yourself move to the city and make it a part of their lives?

Do you feel like we have a possibility for that to happen for us?

- I think so.

I think it's just making a city desirable to live in, doesn't happen overnight.

It has to do with politicians.

It has to do with people supporting the community.

And over time, I think it has become more a better city.

Yeah, hope so.

- An Overton Square Arts District might be a good thing.

- That's a good example.

- Yeah, it could be that.

- Fabulous, yeah.

- What are you looking forward to in the rest of the seasons in theater in Memphis?

What shows are you really looking forward to?

- Well, I mentioned "Les Miserables".

They're doing that again at Playhouse, so that's something to look forward to, because they do a really good job with that.

And then of course, "Rigoletto" is next weekend at Opera Memphis.

And then just some fun shows, yeah.

- You recently were, you've been honored by the medical profession, you've been honored by the Air Force.

But this year you were honored with an Ostrander Award.

Tell us about that experience for you.

That's people saying thank you for real.

- Yes.

I heard about it through my Theatre Memphis connection, and I was kind of surprised.

I just never thought I would be able to win something like that, but it was for people in the background, and I was very honored, yeah.

- So what did you think, what kind of a speech did you make?

- Well, they didn't have speeches.

- Didn't have speech?

Okay.

- That kind of helped.

That made the show go on pretty fast, yeah.

- Okay, okay.

- So I just got it and got my award and sat back down.

- Dr.

Ratliff, I really appreciate you being here today.

Thank you for being on a conversation with us today.

And I want to thank WKNO for making this time available to us and to tell stories of interesting and remarkable people like Dr.

Thomas Ratliff.

We'll see you next time.

[bright music] [acoustic guitar chords]