{"id":3296,"date":"2005-07-03T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2005-07-03T14:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2022-10-09T17:44:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T21:44:19","slug":"happy-birthday-to-george-m-cohan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3296","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday to George M. Cohan!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right.” — George M. Cohan<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

George M. Cohan <\/a>– really the first big superstar in America. He was an actor, a writer, a composer, a producer, a song and dance man … He was IT. I love that he was born on July 3, 1878 (in Providence, RI, of all places!!) and that his most famous song eventually would be “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. I mean, the symmetry of that …<\/p>\n

(I found a great tribute to Cohan here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A kid who grew up in vaudeville, a kid who is a truly American creation … Although he was not (like Yankee Doodle Dandy proclaimed) “born on the fourth of July”, he is symbolic of everything this country can offer. His story is a great one (please: I can barely see the actual George M. Cohan in my mind – all I can see is Cagney <\/a>– damn, people, wasn’t he amazing in that movie??? Cagney, for some reason, brings a big ol’ lump to my throat. He’s so special)<\/p>\n

Here is George Cohan with Ethel Levey in Little Johnny Jones<\/i>, in 1904.<\/p>\n

This was his first big break. George wrote the thing, starred in it, produced it, cast all of his family members in it, you name it – he did it.<\/p>\n

“Yankee Doodle Dandy” was one of the songs in Little Johnny Jones<\/i> (but there were many other which also became classics – “Give My Regards to Broadway”, for example). “Yankee Doodle Dandy” became an instant hit.<\/p>\n

I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,
\nA Yankee Doodle do or die,
\nA real live nephew of my Uncle Sam’s,
\nBorn on the Fourth of July.
\nI’ve got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart.
\nShe’s my Yankee Doodle joy.
\nYankee doodle came to London
\nJust to ride the ponies.
\nI am a Yankee Doodle Boy.<\/p>\n

Happy birthday, George Cohan! Born on the third of July!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right.” — George M. Cohan George M. Cohan – really the first big superstar in America. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178536,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions\/178536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}