February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The musical had been a smash at the box office in 1942 due to its score and dancing, as well as the surging tide of patriotism that followed America’s entry into World War II. The most remarkable thing about Cagney’s triumph is that it came in a role so unlike the ones that had made him famous: the stereotypical Irish gangster.
Born in 1899 to an Irish bartender and Norwegian mother, Cagney grew up on New York’s Lower East Side. Drawn to the theater, he began touring with a vaudeville troupe as a song-and-dance man with his wife, Frances. In the late 1920s, he moved to Broadway and enjoyed critical success opposite Joan Blondell in the musical “Penny Arcade” (1929). His performance in the film version brought him to Hollywood, where he won the lead role in the movie “Sinner’s Holiday” (1930). But it was his next film, “The Public Enemy” (1931) that launched his career as the classic Irish gangster and led to several more films, such as “Angels with Dirty Faces” (1938), “Each Dawn I Die” (1939), and “The Roaring Twenties” (1939).
While the stereotype of the Irish gangster flourished on the screen in the 1930s, it began by decade’s end to give way to a more positive portrayal of the Irish. The most astonishing transformation was the image of the Irish-Catholic priest. Until recently the symbol of a sinister, foreign culture, he was now presented as the embodiment of American virtue and manhood. The trend began with the 1938 film “Boys Town,” for which Spencer Tracy won an Oscar. In 1944, the film “Going My Way” took three Academy Awards, including best actor (Bing Crosby), best supporting actor (Barry Fitzgerald), and best director (Leo McCarey).
It was in the midst of this transforming image of the American Irish in pop culture that Warner Brothers agreed to make a film about the life of George Michael Cohan, perhaps the most famous figure in early 20th century entertainment. Born in 1878 in Providence to parents who performed on the vaudeville circuit, he was only weeks old when he made his first appearance on stage. Not long after he learned to walk, Cohan joined the act that soon became known as “The Four Cohans” (including his sister and parents). By the 1890s they were nationally famous and commanded top billing and fees.
By the turn of the century young George Cohan was writing, producing, and starring in his own musicals. “Little Johnny Jones” opened in late 1904 and became his first big hit. It featured two hit songs, “Give My Regards to Broadway” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” More successes followed, including “You’re a Grand Old Flag” (from the show “George Washington, Jr.”). By 1911, Cohan and his partner, Sam Harris, were by far the most successful duo on Broadway. In that year alone they had no fewer than six hit shows and owned controlling interests in seven theaters. In 1917, just hours after America entered World War I, Cohan penned yet another patriotic ditty, “Over There!” These flag-waving songs later earned Cohan a gold medal from President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.
By then Cohan was 62 and dying of cancer. He’d written his memoirs and had begun to shop around Hollywood the idea of a film version of his life. Warner Brothers bought it and initially offered the lead to dance sensation Fred Astaire. When he turned it down, they selected Cagney, whom they knew had once been a song-and-dance man on the vaudeville circuit.
The setting for the film is a fictitious meeting between Cohan and Roosevelt. The latter asks Cohan to recount his life story. Thus begin a series of flashbacks that take the audience through the various stages of Cohan’s career, each punctuated by a fantastic song and dance number. At the film’s end, Roosevelt presents Cohan with a gold medal for his contribution to American patriotism.
The film was originally scheduled for release on July 4, 1942 — Cohan’s alleged birthday (“born on the Fourth of July”) — but was moved up to Memorial Day out of fear that Cohan would not live to see it. From the start crowds flocked to theaters to see Cagney sing and dance his way through five decades of show business history. Cohan received a private screening and, according to all present, loved the film. He died in November that year.
Cagney made many more films after “Yankee Doodle Dandy” over the next two decades and retired in 1961 after his work in Billy Wilder’s “One, Two, Three.” In 1974, he received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award (1974). Six years later, he came out of retirement for a small role in “Ragtime.” President Reagan presented Cagney the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 1984. He died two years later.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
March 2, 1923: The first issue of Time magazine hits the newsstands. Its debut cover features a charcoal drawing of Rep. Joseph Gurney Cannon.
March 5, 1905: former heavyweight boxing champion John L. Sullivan, whose career had been cut short by alcoholism, decides to give up drinking. He succeeds and spends the rest of his life giving temperance lectures.
March 5, 1770: Patrick Carr, an Irish-born leatherworker, is one of five men to die at the hands of British soldiers in the Boston Massacre.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
March 4, 1778: Patriot Robert Emmet is born in Dublin.
March 5, 1893: Water softening system entrepreneur Emmett J. Culligan is born in Yankton, S.D.
March 8, 1959: Actor Aidan Quinn is born in Chicago.