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George Michael Cohan became the stuff theatrical legends are made of, so it shouldn't be surprising that he instigated a few of those legends, including one surrounding his birth date.
THE FAMILY, JERE AND NELLIE WITH JOSIE AND LITTLE GEORGIE
He completed a family act called The Four Cohans, which included his father Jeremiah "Jere" Cohan (1848–1917), mother Helen "Nellie" Costigan Cohan (1854–1928), and sister Josephine "Josie" Cohan Niblo (1874–1916). Josie, who died of heart disease at a young age.GEORGE REMOVES MAKEUP BACKSTAGECohan's baptismal certificate -- which is his only written birth record -- verifies that he was born in Providence, Rhode Island on July 3rd, 1878. However, Cohan's family unfailingly insisted that George and his country shared birthdays on the 4th.
Although noted for their honesty, the Cohans certainly would have found it hard to resist the publicity value of a performer being "born on the Fourth of July." While it may seem silly to begrudge a dead man a charming piece of his legend, odds are that he was actually born on the 3rd.
GEORGE AND JERE IN A SCENE TOGETHERGeorge was the second child of Jeremiah and Helen Costigan Cohan, better known as Jere and Nellie. These New Englanders of Irish descent interrupted their endless tour of the variety circuit so Nellie could give birth in her hometown of Providence – just as she had done when her daughter Josephine was born two years before.JOSIE AND GEORGEWhen the time came to get back to touring, Jerry and Nellie took the children along. Although George got little formal schooling, his later accomplishments prove that he developed a more than passing mastery of reading, writing and arithmetic. He certainly got a first-hand perspective on geography, spending his childhood traveling perpetually around the United States. Although George got his start as a performer playing the violin in theatre pit bands, his aim was to appear on stage. When he was eleven, he and Josie joined his parents in a full family song and dance act.Cohan became known as one of Vaudeville's best male dancers, and also started writing orignal skits and songs for the family act. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a national publisher in 1893.
Cohan had his first big Broadway hit in 1904 with the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes "Give My Regards To Broadway" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy".
George M. Cohan became one of the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters, publishing several hundered original songs, noted for their catchy melodies and clever lyrics.
His other major hit songs included "You're a Grand Old Flag", "The Warmest Baby In The Bunch", "Life's A Funny Proposition After All", "I Want to Hear a Yankee Doodle Tune", "You Won't Do Any Business If You Haven't Got A Band", "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "The Small Town Gal", "I'm Mighty Glad I'm Living, That's All", "That Haunting Melody", and "Over There".
From 1906 to 1926, Cohan and Sam Harris also produced over three dozen shows on Broadway, including the successful Going Up in 1917, which became a smash hit in London the following year.GEORGE AND SAM JOKING AROUND (Their partnership survived all those years with just a handshake)He wrote numerous other Broadway plays, in addition to contributing material to shows written by others. Some of the notable Broadway shows he starred in included Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1905), The Talk of New York (1907), Broadway Jones (1912), The Song and Dance Man (1923), American Born (1925), Ah, Wilderness! (1933), and I'd Rather Be Right (1937).
GEORGE IN AH, WILDERNESS!FAYE TEMPLETON sings "Only 45 Minutes from Broadway"
In 1925 Cohan published his autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There. In 1932 Cohan starred in the Hollywood movie "The Phantom President".
In 1942 a musical film biography of Cohan, "Yankee Doodle Dandy", was released, with James Cagney playing the role of Cohan.
Cohan enjoyed attending a screening of the film a few weeks before his death. George M. Cohan died in New York City and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Cohan was awarded a congressional medal in recognition of his contibution to the war effort (1917-18) through his songs "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There." In the 1960s a statue of Cohan was erected at Broadway and 47th Street in Manhattan.