Post by artraveler on Oct 27, 2020 9:55:30 GMT -8
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
This is a movie based on the life story of George M. Cohan. It stars on of the most talented actors of the 20th century James Cagney. Cagney like Cohan grew up in show business and vaudeville. Like Cohan he was a song and dance man. In some ways their stories are similar. It is hard to imagine anyone else playing George M. Cohan.
The movie begins with George, called out of retirement in 1942, to play President Roosevelt as America mobilizes for WW II. Cohan is called to visit the White House after the first performance of, “I’d Rather Be Right”. His belief is that he is going to have to explain himself to the President. He is greeted cordially by the staff and the President. From here on the movie is flashback to George’s birth and early years.
The movie is loaded with prominent actors from the 30s and 40s. Walter Huston plays Jerry Cohan, George’s father and Rosemary DeCamp is his mother Nellie. The movie quickly goes through Cohan’s early years, in the 1880s and 90s, playing Peck’s Bad Boy to his late teens and early 20s when he meets his soon to be wife Mary, the very pretty Joan Leslie. About the same time the four Cohan’s break up with George going his own way, without much success.
Struggling to get on stage he meets his soon to be partner, Sam Harris (Richard Whorf). Working together the production company gets funding and it is off to the races, specifically Yankee Doodle Dandy and some of the best song and dance the movies have ever done. Give my Regards to Broadway and I’m a Yankee doodle Dandy are featured. Cagney brings his own style to the stage, it makes you feel good, and exhausted, just to watch.
This is before America’s entry into the Great War. George already in his 30s but seeks to join the army and is rejected due to age. He goes to what he knows best and the result is Grand old Flag, Over There and other patriotic songs of the era. After the war as a producer he stays with his traditional plays. The 20s is the time period that the biggest rivalry is between him and a Jazz singer, Al Jolson. By the early 1930s George is ready to retire to the farm and the Cohan and Harris partnership splits up. A rarity in showbusiness, formed on a handshake and neither man is the senior partner.
The scene shifts to 1942. Sam Harris askes George to star in I’d Rather be Right. The story picks up with George and President Roosevelt and the one great error in the movie. The movie states that Roosevelt awards Cohan the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH). This is not accurate the CMH is only awarded for military and not civilian efforts. The award was actually the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
That error aside the movie just makes you feel good about America and yourself.
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=george+m+cohan&docid=608043824697314956&mid=65A2E5F6A69FC640BEAA65A2E5F6A69FC640BEAA&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
This is a movie based on the life story of George M. Cohan. It stars on of the most talented actors of the 20th century James Cagney. Cagney like Cohan grew up in show business and vaudeville. Like Cohan he was a song and dance man. In some ways their stories are similar. It is hard to imagine anyone else playing George M. Cohan.
The movie begins with George, called out of retirement in 1942, to play President Roosevelt as America mobilizes for WW II. Cohan is called to visit the White House after the first performance of, “I’d Rather Be Right”. His belief is that he is going to have to explain himself to the President. He is greeted cordially by the staff and the President. From here on the movie is flashback to George’s birth and early years.
The movie is loaded with prominent actors from the 30s and 40s. Walter Huston plays Jerry Cohan, George’s father and Rosemary DeCamp is his mother Nellie. The movie quickly goes through Cohan’s early years, in the 1880s and 90s, playing Peck’s Bad Boy to his late teens and early 20s when he meets his soon to be wife Mary, the very pretty Joan Leslie. About the same time the four Cohan’s break up with George going his own way, without much success.
Struggling to get on stage he meets his soon to be partner, Sam Harris (Richard Whorf). Working together the production company gets funding and it is off to the races, specifically Yankee Doodle Dandy and some of the best song and dance the movies have ever done. Give my Regards to Broadway and I’m a Yankee doodle Dandy are featured. Cagney brings his own style to the stage, it makes you feel good, and exhausted, just to watch.
This is before America’s entry into the Great War. George already in his 30s but seeks to join the army and is rejected due to age. He goes to what he knows best and the result is Grand old Flag, Over There and other patriotic songs of the era. After the war as a producer he stays with his traditional plays. The 20s is the time period that the biggest rivalry is between him and a Jazz singer, Al Jolson. By the early 1930s George is ready to retire to the farm and the Cohan and Harris partnership splits up. A rarity in showbusiness, formed on a handshake and neither man is the senior partner.
The scene shifts to 1942. Sam Harris askes George to star in I’d Rather be Right. The story picks up with George and President Roosevelt and the one great error in the movie. The movie states that Roosevelt awards Cohan the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH). This is not accurate the CMH is only awarded for military and not civilian efforts. The award was actually the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
That error aside the movie just makes you feel good about America and yourself.
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=george+m+cohan&docid=608043824697314956&mid=65A2E5F6A69FC640BEAA65A2E5F6A69FC640BEAA&view=detail&FORM=VIRE