George M. Cohan
Songwriter, actor, producer, and playwright, George M. Cohan had a long and successful theatrical
career, beginning as a child in his parents’ vaudeville act and continuing for 60 years. Many of his songs
are still instantly recognizable. Read the passage below about this American popular songwriter. Then
answer the questions that follow.
George Michael Cohan was born on July 3, 1878, but always celebrated
his birthday on July 4, Independence Day. Cohan was the child of two
successful vaudeville performers, and both he and his sister joined the
act, which became known as The Four Cohans.
Vaudeville was the most popular form of entertainment in the United
States during the late 1800s. Vaudeville took the form of a variety show,
and often included between 8 and 20 short performances, or acts, in an
evening. Most of these were comedy sketches or musicals. Child
performers like the younger Cohans were common in vaudeville—they
George M. Cohan
1878-1942
were great audience favorites. Trained animal acts or circus performers might also be on the bill. For
example, W.C. Fields appeared as a juggler on the vaudeville stage before he became famous for his
comedy films. Judy Garland, Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Buster Keaton, and Charlie
Chaplin are among the many performers who began their careers in vaudeville, like Cohan, and went on
to great success in Hollywood.
Cohan began writing material for The Four Cohans when he was 11. He wrote his first song at
13. In 1904 he entered a partnership with Sam H. Harris to produce and manage Broadway
shows. Many of the plays they produced were Cohan’s own work, including Broadway Jones,
Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, and Little Johnny Jones. At the turn of the century, most
musicals appearing on Broadway were European operettas featuring princesses and noblemen in
mythical Balkan countries. The plots were romantic, and the music consisted of lush waltzes and
love duets, with the orchestrations relying heavily on violins and woodwinds. Cohan’s musicals,
by contrast, featured brisk, brassy marching rhythms and American subjects and characters.
Some of his best-loved tunes, including “Give My Regards to Broadway” and “Yankee Doodle
Dandy,” were written for these shows. Their popularity paved the way for many future
American playwrights, composers, and lyricists to write what became known as “Broadway
musicals”: Showboat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and West Side Story, for example.
In 1918 the United States entered World War I. Cohan’s patriotic song “Over There,” which
exuberantly declared that the “Yanks are coming,” became the most popular of the many
inspirational war songs. The song reappeared to boost morale again during World War II.
With the end of the war and the beginning of the Jazz Age of the mid-1920s, Cohan’s patriotic
songwriting style became less popular. Only two Cohan musicals opened on Broadway during
this decade; his final show, Billie, opened in 1928. During the 1930s, a number of Hollywood
films featured Cohan songs. His play Little Johnny Jones was filmed in 1930. After he stopped
writing musical shows, Cohan returned to acting, receiving excellent review for performances in
Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness and in the Rodgers and Hart musical I’d Rather Be Right.
Cohan died in 1942.
Cohan was the subject of a 1942 musical film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring the great James
Cagney, who won an Academy Award for his interpretation of the cocky, energetic, feisty, and
talented Cohan. More recently the 1968 Broadway musical George M! told Cohan’s life story
and played his songs once again. His songs are still remembered—in fact, the Cornell University
fight song is sung to the tune of “Give My Regards to Broadway”! His statue stands in New
York City’s Times Square in the heart of the theater district where his shows played for so many
years.
Reviewing the Selection
1. List the main achievements of Cohan’s career.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. What did a vaudeville show consist of?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Critical Thinking
3. Identifying Central Issues. Cohan had a lifelong reputation as a patriot. How do his life
and work show this?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Evaluating Information. What do you think was Cohan’s most important contribution to
American musical theater? Explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
George M Cohan Answers:
1. Writing hit songs; writing hit Broadway musicals; inspiring American troops with “Over
There” through two world wars
2. 8 to 20 short sketches including child performers, trained animal acts, circus acts, musical
numbers, and comic scenes
3. Answers will vary. Possible answer: Cohan’s patriotism is illustrated in the fact that his
songs and shows are distinctly American in subject matter and in style. Such typical Cohan
tunes as “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Give My Regards to Broadway” celebrate
America. His shows paved the way for a distinctly American art form, the Broadway
musical. Such patriotic songs as “Over There” were important to the war effort, as they build
morale both among the soldiers and among those left behind on the home front. Cohan also
made a point of celebrating his birthday on July 4th.
4. Answers will vary. Possible answer: Cohan’s shows proved that America did not have to
depend on Europe for popular entertainment. In contrast to the shows popular at the time—
the love stories of European aristocrats—his shows were comic, patriotic, brassy spectacles
with American settings and characters.