For the Fourth: he’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy
For the Fourth of July, courtesy commenter “mezzrow”:
I saw that film on TV maybe 30 times when I was a child. Loved it, and in particular loved the idea that James Cagney—whom I already knew as a tough old gangster—could dance. His dancing fascinated me because it was so non-balletic and idiosyncratic—the strutting, graceful/ungraceful, artful/artless uniqueness of his movement. In particular I recall the wall-climbing part at the end, which delighted me and still does.
Cagney wasn’t just an actor and hoofer, although he certainly was both. He was also a political conservative and changer. Excerpts from his Wiki page:
He was sickly as a young child””so much so that his mother feared he would die before he could be baptized. He later attributed his sickness to the poverty his family had to endure…The red-haired, blue-eyed Cagney graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1918, and attended Columbia College of Columbia University where he intended to major in art…
Cagney believed in hard work, later stating, “It was good for me. I feel sorry for the kid who has too cushy a time of it. Suddenly he has to come face-to-face with the realities of life without any mama or papa to do his thinking for him.”
He started tap dancing as a boy (a skill that eventually contributed to his Academy Award) and was nicknamed “Cellar-Door Cagney” after his habit of dancing on slanted cellar doors. He was a good street fighter, defending his older brother Harry, a medical student, when necessary. He engaged in amateur boxing, and was a runner-up for the New York State lightweight title. His coaches encouraged him to turn professional, but his mother would not allow it…
In his autobiography, Cagney said that as a young man, he had no political views, since he was more concerned with where the next meal was coming from. However the emerging labor movement of the twenties and thirties soon forced him to take sides…e supported political activist and labor leader Thomas Mooney’s defense fund, but was repelled by the behavior of some of Mooney’s supporters at a rally. Around the same time, he gave money for a Spanish Republican Army ambulance during the Spanish Civil War, which he put down to being “a soft touch.”…He also became involved in a “liberal group…with a leftist slant,” along with Ronald Reagan. However, when he and Reagan saw the direction the group was heading in, they resigned on the same night…
Cagney was accused of being a communist sympathizer in 1934, and again in 1940. The accusation in 1934 stemmed from a letter police found from a local Communist official that alleged that Cagney would bring other Hollywood stars to meetings. Cagney denied this, and Lincoln Steffens, husband of the letter’s writer, backed up this denial, asserting that the accusation stemmed solely from Cagney’s donation to striking cotton workers in the San Joaquin Valley. William Cagney claimed this donation was the root of the charges in 1940. Cagney was cleared…
After [WWII], Cagney’s politics started to change. He had worked on Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential campaigns…However, by the time of the 1948 election, he had become disillusioned with Harry S. Truman, and voted for Thomas E. Dewey, his first non-Democratic vote. By 1980, Cagney was contributing financially to the Republican Party, supporting his friend Ronald Reagan’s bid for the presidency…As he got older, he became more and more conservative, referring to himself in his autobiography as “arch-conservative.” He regarded his move away from liberal politics as “…a totally natural reaction once I began to see undisciplined elements in our country stimulating a breakdown of our system… Those functionless creatures, the hippies … just didn’t appear out of a vacuum.”
Cagney: hoofer, political changer. An original all the way.
Happy Fourth to you all!
Happy 4th, Neo. I noticed a few steps reminiscent of the Georgian toe dancers. I’ve watched this nearly as many time as you.
Former hippie running for President and drawing big crowds.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/07/live-from-council-bluffs-the-mania-of-bernie.php
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.
Scott:
Yes, I noticed that Georgian toe part, too.
Happy 4th of July Neo and friends:
http://www.stressbuster1.com/lady/liberty.html
If you want to watch the Macy’s huge Fourth of July fireworks display, try the New York Harbor webcam:
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/statueofliberty/?cam=liberty_hd
Greetings to the Remnant, and let’s keep the torch of freedom alight.
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.
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?
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”:
Later, “Yankee” was used by Southerners to mean people from the North, but I’ve never heard “Yankee Doodle” used that way.
Stuyvesant and Columbia, huh? Smart guy.
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.
Oh, yes, hints of the Georgian toe dancing can definately be seen there!
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
I wouldn’t call his style unartful or ungraceful; instead a different style, more reminiscent of buskering or self-taught dancers like Tolouse Lautrec’s Chocolat http://uploads6.wikiart.org/images/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec/chocolat-dancing-in-the-irish-and-american-bar.jpg
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!
Michael Jackson used cagney ‘s routine as a model for his video, Billie Jean.
There is an interesting picture of Cagney in mid-flight looking like a proper dancer here:
http://www.seraphicpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/cagney.jpg