I read somewhere that during his career, Paul McCarty wrote and performed 22 songs that have reached the number 1 spot on the “hit parade.” But I wonder if Paul had lived during the time that George M. Cohen was around, if Paul would have been that successful.
George M. Cohen, also known as the “Father of Broadway,” was a performer in the late 1800’s. He began his career performing with his parents and sister in Vaudeville. Known as “The Four Cohan’s,” they danced, sang and even performed in plays. As he got older and took a more prominent role in the act, he would end each performance by saying to the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, my mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you.”
In 1904, he started his writing and producing career with a show called, “Little Johnny Jones.” George Cohan wrote and produced more than 36 Broadway plays, wrote and starred in over 50 shows and published more than 300 songs over the course of his life. But America was really the star of most of his shows and music.
He started writing patriotic music at the start of World War I. An injury from a fall on stage kept him from serving in the military, so he served his country through music. He was recognized with the Medal of Honor for writing, “Over There,” a lively, patriotic song about Americans being sent to Europe to fight and finish the war, saying that “they won’t come back till it’s over, over there.” He also wrote Yankee Doodle Boy and “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” as a tribute to the American spirit.
Every 4th of July, the story of George M. Cohan’s life and love of country airs/streams on local channels in a movie called, “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” If you are looking for a great musical and a love song to America, check it out.
