George Michael Cohan

The American actor and playwright George Michael Cohan (1878-1942) was one of the most versatile personalities in the American theater. His shows glorified Broadway and patriotism.

George M. Cohan was born July 3, 1878 (legend has it as July 4), in Providence, R.I., the son of vaudevillians. He first appeared on stage as a violinist in the family act and then as a "buck and wing" dancer. He was the star of Peck's Bad Boy in 1890, and at age 15 he made his Broadway debut. At the concluding curtain call, his words to the audience, "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you," became a sentimental trademark of his act. His first wife, Ethel Levey, whom he married in 1899, was his dancing partner after his sister left the act. He married a second time in 1908.

The first Broadway production which he wrote, composed, and directed was The Governor's Son (1901). Among the more than 50 plays, comedies, and revues he wrote, produced, or acted in were Little Johnny Jones (1904), Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1906), George Washington, Jr. (1906), The Man Who Owns Broadway (1908), The Yankee Prince (1908), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) (which earned him a reputation as a serious playwright), and The Cohan Revues (1916 and 1918). He also wrote over 100 vaudeville sketches. The stage style for which he was famous included dapper costumes, a derby or straw hat cocked jauntily over one eye, wisecracks, and lively capers across the stage with a fast swinging cane.

The many popular songs he composed include "Mary's a Grand Old Name," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "So Long Mary," "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy," and "You're a Grand Old Flag." His famous World War I song, "Over There" (1917), sold 2 million copies of sheet music and 1 million records. President Woodrow Wilson described it as an inspiration to American manhood, and President Franklin Roosevelt cited the song when presenting Cohan with a congressional medal.

Cohan's role in Eugene O'Neill's Ah Wilderness (1933) proved his competence as a serious actor. His impersonation of President Roosevelt in the satire I'd Rather Be Right (1937-1938) was also praised.

Cohan made a movie in 1932, The Phantom President, but was generally unhappy with Hollywood. In 1942 James Cagney portrayed him in the film biography Yankee Doodle Dandy and won the Academy Award. A musical play, George M!, featuring his music, was produced on Broadway in 1968.

Cohan died on Nov. 5, 1942. A protean talent, he often wrote his own books and lyrics and sang and danced in, produced, and directed his own shows. Essentially a "song and dance" man, he energized the American musical theater. However uncomplicated and sentimental his works are, they have an important place in theatrical history.

Further Reading

Cohan's autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There (1925), is cheerful and brash but without real insight. A witty, fond, and anecdotal treatment is Ward Morehouse, George M. Cohan, Prince of the American Theater (1943).

Additional Sources

McCabe, John, George M. Cohan, the man who owned Broadway, New York: Da Capo Press, 1980. □

George Michael Cohan , 1878–1942, American showman, b. Providence, R.I. As a child he appeared in vaudeville as one of "The Four Cohans" with his father, mother, and sister, Josephine. He eventually wrote the act and was the business manager. The Governor's Son (1901) was his first attempt at Broadway; Little Johnny Jones (1904) was his first success. Cohan wrote the book, music, and lyrics for 20 musicals; he was the producer, director, and most often the star. His inimitable style set the pattern of fast-moving, flippant and gay musicals; his characters were often modeled after real persons. Such shows as Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1906), Hello, Broadway (1914), and The Song and Dance Man (1923), and such songs as "The Yankee Doodle Boy,""Give My Regards to Broadway,""Over There," and "You're a Grand Old Flag" show his preoccupation with flag-waving patriotism. Through his long career he had only one partner, Sam H. Harris. In 1913, Cohan revolutionized the mystery farce with his dramatization of Earl Derr Bigger's novel Seven Keys to Baldpate. He was an excellent adapter and play doctor; he described his adaptations as "Cohanized." As an actor he was noted for his debonair characterizations; his performances in O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1934) and as the President in I'd Rather Be Right (1937) were particularly notable. His last public appearance was in his own play Return of the Vagabond (1940).

Bibliography: See his Twenty Years on Broadway (1924, repr. 1971).

Cohan, George M(ichael) (1878–1942), American actor, manager, and prolific song-writer, an outstanding figure in the American musical theatre who also wrote plays. He appeared as a child with his parents and sister in an act billed as ‘The Four Cohans’, and at 15 was writing songs and skits for performance in vaudeville. In 1901 he made his first appearance in New York in The Governor's Son, for which he wrote book, music, and lyrics, and soon built up an enviable reputation with his musicals such as Little Johnny Jones (1904) and George Washington, Jr. (1906). In 1911 he opened his own playhouse, the George M. Cohan Theatre, with his comedy Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, appearing there later the same year in his musicals The Little Millionaire and Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway. Among his later successes were the comedy Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) and The Song and Dance Man (1923), in which he played a second-rate variety performer who thinks he is good. He was also a success in O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1933) and Kaufman and Moss Hart's I'd Rather be Right (1937). From 1904 to 1920 he ran a successful producing partnership with Sam H. Harris (see SAM H. HARRIS THEATRE). Among Cohan's best known songs are ‘The Yankee Doodle Boy’, ‘Give My Regards to Broadway’, and ‘Over There’.

Cohan, George Michael (1878–1942) performer writer of songs, musicals, and plays, and producer born in Providence, Rhode Island. Cohan was a patriarch of popular musical entertainment and a significant contributor to the country's wartime fighting spirit. He was awarded a special Congressional Medal of Honor for “Over There” and “It's a Grand Old Flag.”

Cohan, George M[ichael] (1878–1942), New York comic actor, composer of such popular songs as Over There of World War I,and author of plays that include Forty‐Five Minutes from Broadway (1906), The Talk of New York (1907), and The Song and Dance Man (1923).