“Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Over
There,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Yankee Doodle
Dandy,” “Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway,”
“Mary’s a Grand Old Name,” were songs written eighty to
nearly one hundred years ago, but still inspire us today. The words
and music of these songs were written by one of the most prominent
and nationally known songwriter, playwright, producer, and actor in
America, George Michael Cohan.
George Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island on July 3, 1878.
He was the son of vaudevillians Jeremiah (Jerry) and Helen (Nellie)
Costigan Cohan. Jerry Cohan’s parents had come as immigrants from
County Cork, Ireland and landed in Boston. Before leaving Ireland
their Gaelic name of “0’Caomhen” was changed to Keohane,
and upon their arrival in America their name was shortened to Cohan
by immigration officials. While his parents were performers in the
Boston theaters, George resided in Chelsea and attended the old
Carter School on Forsyth Street.
George made his first stage appearance at the age of nine as
“Master George: Violin Tricks and Tinkling Tunes.” George
hated the violin. A couple of years later George became a regular
part of the family act “The Four Cohans”. The act consisted
of George, his father, his mother, and his sister Josie, with whom he
sang and danced. At the age of fourteen, George first came forward at
curtain call, with a speech that would become traditional: “My
mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you and I
thank you.” George contributed songs and material to the act at
the age of fourteen. He sold his first song, “Why did Nellie
Leave Her Home?” to a publisher at the age of sixteen. Cohan
wrote “Harrigan,” a song heard at every Irish occasion, for
Ed Harrigan, an old family friend. He captivated all hearts with
‘Mary’s a Grand Old Name” and “So Long Mary,” however,
his first wife’s name was Ethel, his second wife’s name was Agnes,
his mother’s name was Nellie and his sister’s name was Josephine.
While riding with a Civil War veteran in a firneral cortege, who was
relating stories of the war and holding a folded American flag in his
lap, the veteran stopped, stroked the flag fondly and said,
“she’s a grand old rag”. Using this as a title for a new
song, critics complained Cohan was profaning the stars and stripes.
Cohan quickly changed the lyrics to “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”
George Cohan was considered the father of American musical comedy.
His musical comedies turned the American musical theater away from
foreign setting operettas toward American situations. When George
Cohan picked up the newspaper on that April morning in 1917 to learn
the United States had declared war against Germany, he got an instant
urge to write a song that expressed his feelings. The tune and lyrics
began to form in his head. Cohan soon had the words and tune of his
song down on paper, even the title of “Over There”. The
song awoke the martial spirit of the American public.
Producer-partner Sam Harris stated “if ever a man put his love
of country on a song sheet, it was George M. Cohan.”
In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented George M. Cohan
with the Congressional Medal of Honor in “belated recognition of
his authorship of ‘Over There’ and ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag!’ ”
It was America’s way of saying “thank you.” George Michael
Cohan passed away in 1942 at the age of sixty-four years.
