Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Theater George Cohan George Cohan George Michael Cohan was a great American playwright, composer, producer, and actor. He was famous for his fast-paced style as a song-dance man and for his lively musicals, which set the trend on Broadway in the 1920s. Cohan was a dedicated man who spent 56 of his 64 years on the stage. During his lifetime, he wrote 40 plays, collaborated with others on another 40 plays, and shared production of still another 150 plays. He made over a 1000 appearances as an actor. Some of the more than 500 songs that he wrote were major national hits. Born in Providence, Rhode Island on the 4th of July, George Michael was named after George Washington. It seems George Michael Cohan was destine to be a patriotic leader from the beginning. His parents were circuit-traveling vaudevillians, Jeremiah and Helen Cohan, who had three children. The first died in infancy, George was the second child and Josephine followed him two years later. The life of all vaudevillians in those days was to have the family 'lived out of a trunk', traveling from town to town, staying in shabby boarding houses. Often the children would sleep in the theater dressing room while the parents were on stage. George had only a mild taste of public school education, as well as just a few lessons on the violin. The theater became his school, - and he was an apt pupil. He appeared in one of his parent's stage sketches as a 'prop' while still an infant. When he was nine years old, he became a member of the act, with his sister Josephine joining him just one year later. Now, the act was officially known as 'The Four Cohans'. George would do sentimental recitations, and often perform a "buck and wing dance." By age 11, he was writing special material, and by age 13, he was writing songs and lyrics for the act. He was just 16 years old when in 1894, he sold his first song, "Why Did Nellie Leave Home?" to Witmark Music Publishing for twenty-five dollars. Other song that followed not long after that included: "Hot Tamale Alley", (1895) sold to vaudevillian May Irwin for her act, "The Warmest Baby in the Bunch" (1897), and "I Guess I'll Have to Telegraph My Baby" (1898). 'The Four Cohans' were now celebrities commanding a $1000.00 per week. George was writing the songs and the sketches; He became the starring actor. He was also selling original songs and sketches to other acts. In addition, he topped this all by managing the family's business affairs. He was now 20 years of age, and in complete control of the act. Isidore Witmark, in his autobiography, has pointed out that the young (and also mature) George Cohan was an opinionated, brash, cocky youngster with a very high opinion of his own gifts. In 1899, George married his first wife, Ethel Levey, a popular singing comedian. She became the 'fifth' Cohan in the act. Cohan now began to turn his attention to the Broadway Musical Comedy stage. In 1901, 'The Governor's Son' was his first musical; 'Running For Office' in 1903 was his second. Both were based on his vaudeville sketches, and both were failures. In 1904, George and Sam Harris formed a partnership that was destined to become one of Broadway's most successful producing firms. Cohan's first success on Broadway was in 1904 with 'Little Johnny Jones'. With Cohan playing the role of a jockey, singing song like "The Yankee Doodle Boy" (aka "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy") and "Give My Regards To Broadway" the play was an instant hit. 'Forty Five Minutes From Broadway', book, music, and lyrics all by Cohan were a major success. Cohan was not in the original show but he did have a role in the 1912 revival. "So Long Mary" and "Mary's A Grand Old Name" were the most popular songs in this particular musical. Cohan supposedly wrote them for his wife. 'George Washington, Jr.' was the play that Cohan would be identified with for life. He would march up and down the stage carrying the American flag while singing a very patriotic tune. In this play, the patriotic song was: "You're A Grand Old Flag." The original title was "You're a Grand Old Rag", but some folks objected so Cohan renamed the tune. In 1907, Cohan divorced Ethel, and later in the same year, George married Agnes Nolan. Agnes was a sister of Sam Harris's wife. In 1911, the Cohan-Harris partnership had no fewer than 6 hit shows on Broadway, and controlled 7 theaters. In 1917, Cohan composed his greatest hit song just as America entered into World War I. Cohan was living in New Rochelle ("Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway"). On the train down to New York, he thought of a song. Cohan has said, "I read those war headlines, and I got to thinking and humming to myself, and for a minute, I thought I was going to dance. I was all finished with both the chorus and the verse by the time I got to town, and I also had a title." The title was "Over There". Charles King introduced the song in the New Amsterdam Theater in 1917; the Nora Bayes recording made it a national hit. Twenty-five years later, Congress authorized President Franklin Roosevelt to present the Congressional Medal of Honor for this war song. In 1919, Actor's Equity called a strike in an effort to gain recognition as bargaining agent for its membership. This strike closed the Broadway theaters. As a producer, Cohan was affected. Many of the people who aligned themselves with Equity, were folks whom Cohan had helped with their careers. He became quite bitter, lost his enthusiasm, and even broke up the successful Cohan-Harris partnership. He retired from show business and even cancelled his memberships in the Friar's Club and The Lambs. (Two Broadway organizations.) Nevertheless, show people can no longer stay away from the stage, than composers can stay away from music. After some rest and travel, Cohan returned to Broadway. From 1923-1928, Cohan created four more song but none of these was successful. This added to Cohan's bitterness. Cohan remarked to a friend, "It getting to be too much for me, kid. I guess people don't understand me any more, and I don't understand them." He was due for still another disappointment. Cohan went to Hollywood in 1932 to star in ' The Phantom President. However, he found directors, who had never acted or sang, trying to teach him how to sing and dance, and to wave the flag. He felt that the big Hollywood moguls did not have enough respect for him. He returned to Broadway, and vowed never to return to Hollywood. But success was again hovering just around the corner. · 1933, Cohan starred in Eugene O'Neils 'Ah, Wilderness', a hit! · 1937, Cohan played F.D.Roosevelt in 'I'd Rather Be Right', a Rodgers and Hart hit show. · 1940, Cohan wrote the Broadway play, 'The return of the Vagabond'. It had a seven performance run. Cohan told a friend "They don't want me no more." · 1942, Hollywood filmed 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' a biography (so-to-speak) of his life. Jimmy Cagney won an Academy Award for his impersonation of Cohan. In was in 1942, while Cohan was recovering from an abdominal operation, that he paid his last respects to Broadway. He asked his nurse to accompany him on a taxi ride from Union Square up to Times Square, stopping briefly at the Hollywood Theater, to watch some scenes from 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. Cohan was taking one last look at all the places he had worked and starred. He was never to see Broadway again. George M. Cohan died on Nov. 5, 1942. President Roosevelt wired, "A beloved figure is lost to our national life." Bibliography: End Notes 1 Buckner, Robert. Yankee Doodle Dandy. University of Wisconsin Pr: ISBN Published 1981 2 McCabe, John. George Michael Cohan: The Man Who Owned Broadway. Smithsonian Institution Copyright 1990 3 "Cohan, George M." Encarta 2000, Microsoft Corp. Copyright 1992. 4 Internet, Encyclopedia Entry. February 27, 2000 http://infoplease.lycos.com/ce5/CE011761.html Word Count: 1306
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