Home » For the Fourth: he’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy

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For the Fourth: he’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy — 18 Comments

  1. Happy 4th, Neo. I noticed a few steps reminiscent of the Georgian toe dancers. I’ve watched this nearly as many time as you.

  2. I’ve shown this to co-workers who didn’t believe that Cagney could dance.
    After I learned that I always saw it in the way he walked.
    Happy Fourth.

    And his portrayal of Admiral Halsey, The Gallant Hours, is powerful.

  3. After your video ended there was a link to Cagney playing George M. Cohan in Over There. Can you imagine that song making it through the PC fences today? I’ve always liked Cagney. Do young people today watch old movies? I think they really are divorced from our culture.

  4. Love the song, love the movie.

    It just occurred to me that Southerners might not feel the same about the song. Anyone here know anything about that?

  5. Ann:

    I have no idea how Southerners feel about the song, but the origin of the phrase “Yankee Doodle” has to do with the American Revolution, not “Yankee” as in “Northerner”:

    There are several theories as to the origin of the word, but the prevailing theory is that was a dismissive reference by the British towards American colonists and the Dutch origins of many northeast settlers. It is believed to be a corruption of Janke, or little Jan, a common Dutch name.

    The song “Yankee Doodle Dandy” became popular among the British as well as the rebels. A doodle was a simpleton and the phrase “stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni” implied the backwoods bumpkins could put a feather in their coonskin hats and think they were as elegant as European in the latest Italian style — the “macaroni.”

    The American army embraced the derisive song and when Gen. Cornwallis’ troops surrendered at Yorktown to end the war, they march out of the fort playing “The World Turned Upside Down.” They were met by an American band playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

    Later, “Yankee” was used by Southerners to mean people from the North, but I’ve never heard “Yankee Doodle” used that way.

  6. Thanks, Neo. I was aware that the song went back to Revolutionary days, I just wondered if there was any lingering tendency to lump that song in with the often pejorative use of “Yankee” in the South.

    There was a parody of the song in the South during the Civil War — Dixie Doodle:

    1. Dixie whipped old Yankee Doodle
    Early in the morning,
    So Yankeedom had best look out,
    And take a timely warning.

    Chorus

    Hurrah! for our Dixie Land!
    Hurrah! for our borders!
    Southern boys to arms will stand,
    And whip the dark marauders!

    2. Yankee Doodles soundly slept
    Upon their greasy pillows,
    While Dixie boys, with muffled oars,
    Were gliding o’er the billows.

    3. Yankee Doodles, grease your heels,
    Make ready to be running,
    For Dixie boys are near at hand,
    Surpassing you in cunning.

    4. Anderson, the gallant brave,
    Who broke upon their slumbers,
    E’en little girls and boys shall sing
    Your name in tuneful numbers.

    5. A thousand blessings on your heads,
    Our brave, unflinching leaders,
    A light you are upon the path
    Of all our brave seceders.

    6. Wright, on Carolina’s coast,
    Was e’er a hero bolder?
    He seized a Yankee foe, and made
    A breastwork of the soldier.

    7. Louisiana, bold and brave,
    Renowned for Creole beauty,
    Your champions will bear in mind
    The watchword, grace and booty!

    8. Yankee Doodle, fair thee well,
    Ere long you’ll be forgotten,
    While Dixie’s notes shall gaily float
    Throughout the land of cotton.

  7. Oh, yes, hints of the Georgian toe dancing can definately be seen there!

  8. I’m a day late as usual, with what may be old news to some of you, but only recently I learned that this extraordinary dance style is not Cagney’s own, but a brilliant pastiche of the dancing of George M. Cohan, who Cagney is playing.

    Belated Happy 4th to all.

    Yankee Doodle keep it up
    Yankee Doodle Dandy
    Mind the music, mind the step
    and with the girls be handy

  9. I might have the story wrong, but Peggy Noonan was talking to Reagan about movies once. He talked about being blown away by Yankee Doodle Dandy. Noonan honed in on this, thinking she could find an insight into the source of patriotic idealism in Reagan. She asked him what was so powerful about the film. He said that before that, no one knew that Cagney could dance.

    I’ve never heard anyone else make that observation until now. Good company to be in!

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