George M. Cohan was born today. Yes, today

What? Whoa! Wait a minute! George M. Cohan was born on the 3rd of July?

Yep. Johnny Jones, of the play Little Johnny Jones, sings proudly that he was born on the 4th of July. But he was just a character in a play. Cohan was born on July 3, 1878—close, but no cigar. By the way, Jimmy Cagney was born on July 17; less close, and still no cigar. I mention Cagney because when most of us think of Cohan, it's Cagney who comes to mind, thanks to the film Yankee Doodle Dandy, which will probably be playing on half of the stations on your TV tomorrow from dawn to dusk and beyond. But Cagney wasn't Cohan any more than Cohan was Johnny Jones. He just played him in a movie.

There isn't a lot of footage of Cohan around. He did a couple of talkies and a few silents, so this material from Phantom President (1932) is a rare find. It's also part and parcel of its time, with Cohan in blackface for much of it. Minstrelsy was alive and well at the time, and Al Jolson near at the top of his fame. Times change... Anyhow, the film doesn't look all that great, but around 1:43 Cohan starts to sing and dance. Watch that! This is one of the greatest entertainers ever, captured doing his thing on film.



You might want to compare Jimmy Cagney's dancing in this link from Yankee Doodle Dandy. He does thrust himself around much as Cohan did. A lot of people think that Cagney just danced that way and that somehow in 1942 he recreated himself from his gangster movie roots, suddenly becoming a song-and-dance man for this movie. But Cagney was a Broadway hoofer for years before he was squashing grapefruits into his molls' faces. Even while he was making those gangster films for Warner Brothers he also made Footlight Parade. Watch Cagney dance here with Ruby Keeler in the Shanghai Lil number from that picture. He's still got a lot of back in it, but he's much more contained and, frankly, pretty good. At least, unlike Ms. Keeler, he doesn't have to keep looking at his feet!

And before you ask, Ruby Keeler was born on August 25th. Not even close.